Simple Garlic Butter or Garlic Oil

Having struggled with candidiasis for quite a few years, I am supposed to be eating a fair amount of garlic every day.

I tried all sorts of things to get more uncooked garlic into my diet, but it would always burn my mouth and throat when I ate a lot of it at one time. Frustrated, I relegated myself to eating more slightly-cooked garlic, but let's face it: it doesn't really have the same therapeutic value as when eaten raw.

I finally discovered a simple way to eat raw garlic without getting burned: crush it and mix it with either olive oil or butter in a small dish that I can take from throughout the day.

The recipe is as simple as this:

• 1 or 2 sections from a garlic bulb, peeled
• 1/2 tb olive oil or butter

Crush the garlic with a garlic press. Add the oil or butter, and mash it all together with a fork until you have coated the garlic with either the olive oil or butter. Great on bread, rice, in sandwiches or other bland food needing some zing. This is THE way to get more raw garlic into your diet without that burning sensation and stomach upset that follow eating raw garlic.

When I've made this recipe using olive oil, I've let it sit out a while, and after a few hours, the garlic becomes more transparent and 'matures' a little, imparting its flavour to the olive oil and becoming more spread-like. It's perfect on a salad of sliced tomatoes and lettuce (add some oregano too!), or spread on a baguette and topped with cheese, meat and/or sliced veggies.

For those of you with candidiasis, lung issues or just about any other ailment, this will help you immeasurably, and it is simply delicious.

Alternative Eggs Benedict

This version of Eggs Benedict uses tahini and garbanzo bean pancakes instead of regular muffins and the sauce used in conventional recipes. Using these low-glycemic ingredients is good for overall health, in particular for those prone to cancer and other ailments which are fed by the overuse of refined sugars.

This recipe serves two:

• 2 eggs
• 3/4 c garbanzo bean flour
• 1 sprinkle cumin powder
• 1 sprinkle garlic powder
• 1 sprinkle sea salt
  
• 1/3 c water
• tahini
• ham or chicken slices (2)
  

Mix together garbanzo flour, water, cumin, garlic and sea salt, stirring until lumps are mostly gone and the mixture is the consistency of pancake batter. (Add more water if necessary.)

Pour into olive-oiled frypan, using about half the batter. Sautee on both sides until light brown. Set garbanzo pancakes aside and cook eggs in same pan, either sunny-side up or over easy, according to your preference. Sautee ham or chicken slices until warm.

Spread a small amount of tahini onto pancakes and top each with ham slice and egg. Great for breakfast, lunch or dinner, or as a complement to a veggie dish.

From Scratch No-Salt Tomato Sauce

This is the sauce I made quickly from scratch to go with the Brilliant No-Salt Chicken (this blog, June 2009). I decided to reproduce it here as a standalone recipe since it turned out so great. This tomato sauce leaves the sugar and salt behind, but definitely not the flavour!

• 1 small organic yellow onion, skinned and chopped
• 2 sections (the small little bulbs from the clove) organic garlic, skinned and pressed
• 4 roma tomatos, sliced thinly
• 50 g (or about 2 ounces) fresh basil, chopped
• Organic olive oil (enough to lightly coat bottom of two medium-sized skillets)

Heat skillet with oil over low-medium heat. Add chopped onion and pressed garlic and sautee for a few minutes, until garlic and onion become just slightly transparent. Add sliced roma tomatos and stir well to mix; gently sautee for around 10 minutes. Add chopped fresh basil (I used approx. half of a Trader Joe's container of fresh basil). Stir well and sautee for another several minutes, until you get a "stewed tomato" texture. Change to lower heat setting if mixture starts to look too dry. Keep a lid handy for use in between stirs.

Remove from heat to cool slightly and serve immediately. Great over chicken or pasta, or as part of another recipe that requires tomato sauce.

Malted Whey Protein Drink

This is a quick recipe for a mild, slightly sweet tasting protein drink that tastes similar to malted milk:

• 200 ml unsweetened vanilla almond milk (I use Blue Diamond, which retails for $1.99 at Trader Joe's)
• 2 - 30 cc scoops unsweetened whey protein
• 1 generous sprinkle ground cinnamon
• 3 mg inulin
• 1-2 tsp olive oil

Warm the almond milk until just lukewarm, so as not to destroy the beneficial nutrients when adding in the whey protein. Add all other ingredients to the warmed almond milk and stir well.

I use this drink within 15 minutes after a workout at the recommendation of my health counselor to help re-build the lean muscle tissue that tended to decrease when I was ill. It is also really great right before bed, especially if you've been up late and your stomach is growling.

Cilantro Tahini Eggs

These are effin' great! I was looking for a cool substitute for mayo when making deviled eggs for a block party yesterday, and so went out and picked up an 8-oz container of Tahini Sauce at Trader Joe's. The full-bodied creaminess of the Tahini Sauce and its lemony flavour was exactly what the recipe needed:

• 12-14 large eggs
• 1 8-oz container Tahini Sauce
• 6-8 sprigs cilantro leaves, chopped

Place eggs in cool salted water, making sure water covers the eggs, and bring to a boil. Once boiling, time for 7 minutes, turning heat down to just above medium so that eggs are gently boiled. Pour boiling water out of pans over sink and refill with cool water to cool eggs. Refrigerate for two-three hours.

Remove cooked eggs from fridge, peel and slice in half. Carefully remove yolks, which should be firm, but not too dry. Set aside egg white halves. Mix yolks in Tahini Sauce until mixture is uniform and smooth (just a couple minutes). Add in chopped cilantro leaves and quickly mix to distribute evenly.

Using small spoon, scoop mixture into each egg white half, distributing mixture evenly among all egg halves. Place in cilantro-lined container and refrigerate again for an hour or so.

These eggs were really well-received at the block party, and have a delicious flavour and texture that is heartier than traditional deviled eggs. They make great leftovers - we ate them for breakfast the next morning and they were just as good!

Quick & Easy Sweet & Spicy Sauteed Plantain

I bought a plantain last weekend that had a cool little sticker on it that read:

Green - Use like a potato! Perfect as a side dish, in soups and stews, or deep fried.
Yellow with Brown Spots - Great fried and mashed.
Black - Sweet and mainly used as a dessert.

Mine was slightly green/mostly yellow last week, so I let it sit in our hot summer kitchen on a shelf for slightly over a week. It turned yellow with a fair amount of solid brown at the ends with some spots here and there in between. It was soft to the touch.

I peeled it and it was almost the colour of orange sherbet, a nice, bright, slightly orange-y gold colour. I sliced it in quarters and then sliced the quarters into halves and fried them all in butter, turning frequently for about 10 minutes on low - medium heat, until they were lightly crispy and browned on some surfaces and soft with that glassy look of doneness (versus the dry look before I fried it).

I put the fried plantain pieces in a bowl and covered them with cinnamon for the best tasting dessert I've had in months. The taste was sweet and buttery and spicy, and no sugar or carb rush since there's not as much sugar in these as in their banana cousins, and plenty of stomach-soothing mucilagenous fibre to fill you up for several hours. Simple and delicious!

EZ Tomato BBQ Sauce

Here's an easy BBQ sauce for the times when you run out of the storebought version:

• 1 can chopped tomatoes (can use roasted tomatoes depending on your taste)
• 1-2 tb finely chopped white onion
• 4 - 6 sections garlic, crushed & chopped
• 1 tb cider vinegar
  
• 2 tb agave nectar or molasses (or more to taste)

You can stop here, or use these variations* for flavor's sake:

• 1 tsp turmeric*
• 1/2 tsp ginger powder*
• Small sprinkle of cayenne pepper*
  

Combine all ingredients in medium saucepan, stirring frequently over lo-medium heat for 20 minutes or so (the longer the better). And dammit, don't let it overcook to the point where it loses moisture or gets burned at the bottom of the saucepan! Use it to baste barbecue meats, fish, this even works as a topping for hot dogs. There is no added salt, and it has very low glycemic/sugar content while being quite flavourful.

*These three ingredients were used as a substitute for mustard powder, which I did not have on hand. Some other substitutes you might consider:

• No vinegar on hand? Try lemon juice or even orange juice and wine.
• Any sweetener or sugar substitute will work. Simply taste-test to your preferred sweetness amount and make a note of how much and what you used.
• Other substitutes for mustard: horseradish, regular liquid mustard, wasabi powder, mustard seed, etc.

Brilliant No-Salt Italian Chicken

I came up with this recipe this past weekend when company came to eat lunch. Neither member of the arriving party wanted to eat any salt due to health concerns, so I made a quick, salt-free Italian dish that took about a half hour to make, including prep time:

• 1 small organic yellow onion, skinned and chopped
• 2 sections (the small little bulbs from the clove) organic garlic, skinned and pressed
• 4 roma tomatos, sliced thinly
• 50 g (or about 2 ounces) fresh basil, chopped
• Organic olive oil (enough to lightly coat bottom of two medium-sized skillets)
• 3 organic chicken breasts

Heat skillet with oil over low-medium heat. Add chopped onion and pressed garlic and sautee for a few minutes. Add sliced roma tomatos and stir well to mix; gently sautee for around 10 minutes. Add chopped fresh basil (I used approx. half of a Trader Joe's container of fresh basil). Stir well and sautee for another several minutes, until you get a "stewed tomato" texture. Change to lower heat setting if mixture starts to look too dry. Keep a lid handy for use in between stirs.

While sauteeing the tomatos, rinse three organic skinless chicken breasts and tenderise using the bottom of a bottle (keep chicken in a plastic bag) or a meat tenderising tool. Tenderise both sides and slice in half lengthwise. Coat a second skillet with olive oil and sautee chicken until lightly browned on both sides.

Serve chicken with finished tomato mixture spooned on top. Optional: add garlic powder, oregano or other seasoning to taste.

My guests loved the dish without salt, and it was very flavourful without having to add salt or anything else!

Low-Glycemic Vegan Pancakes and Breading

Get a hold of some low-glycemic chick pea (garbanzo bean glycemic index: 28, which is considered quite low) flour.  Also called Besan, this is usually available in health food shops and in stores selling Indian food.  This is so damn easy:

• Any amount of garbanzo bean flour
• Water
• Sea salt

Add enough water to the garbanzo flour and salt (add to your taste) to make a pancake batter-like consistency (meaning it should be a little firm, but easy-flowing enough to form a flat, round disc when poured into a frying pan).  Add your choice or combination of:

• Herbs (cumin, cilantro, coriander, cayenne, etc.)
• Veggies (chopped finely)
• Oils (olive, etc.)
• Meats (use less water for batter, some salt and the right herbs and it makes a great "breading" for fried chicken, etc.)

Pour some batter into a well-heated frying pan on medium heat.  Cook first side until you can see slight browning on the edges.  Flip and serve with a main dish, or as a main dish.

Un-Breadcrumbs

Easy, easy:

• 1 c almond meal
  
• 1 tsp garlic powder
  
• 1 tsp sea salt
  
• 1 tsp dried oregano

You can adjust to your own taste, but this tastes *just* like those high-carb breadcrumbs you came to know and love before you knew what was good for you.  Enjoy!

Gluten-Free Popovers

Very easy to make and delicious without the gluten.  I do use butter, but you can sub in Smart Balance or Earth Balance (one of those new spreads that's got the good oils in it).  They take minutes to make in the blender before letting your oven take over.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.  In blender, pour in:

• 1 c milk (I use unsweetened almond milk, vanilla, but any milk at room temp is OK)
• 1 tb melted organic butter (melt this in an oven-proof dish when oven is pre-heating)
• 3 large organic eggs

In bowl, blend together until uniform:

• 2/3 c tapioca flour (also known as "tapioca starch")
• 1/3 c sorghum flour
• 1 tb amaranth flour
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1/4 tsp guar gum

Next, set your blender on its lowest speed, add half the flour mixture and hit any button (blend, beat, puree, etc--I always have a good laugh about there being so many buttons that basically all do the same exact thing).  Blend for about 30 seconds, or until smooth.  Then, add the rest of the flour mixture in and blend until smooth.

Evenly distribute mixture to greased (I grease the sides and bottoms first with a little butter, then pour some organic olive oil into each cup) ceramic muffin pan.  Each cup should be 2/3 to 3/4 full.  Place in preheated 450 degree oven for 20 minutes, then turn temp down to 350 for another 10 or 15 minutes (do NOT open oven until completely done).

Remove from oven and let sit a few minutes.  Popovers should easily come out of the cups without need for any scraping or utensils.

These are great with a dollop of peanut butter (put it on while they're hot and the peanut butter will become sauce-like) or a little honey.  Try your own add-ons, or add-ins while cooking (sometimes I use a little cheese).  Enjoy!

Quick Savory Meat and/or Veggie Sauce

Here's an easy way to spruce up either a canned or jarred store-bought sauce quickly and easily:

• 1 large can Trader Joe's organic tomato sauce (can use any plain-jane tomato sauce that has no other ingredients)
• 2 celery stalks, sliced thinly (use scissors for speed)
• 1 medium zucchini, grated
• 1 tb agave nectar* (used to reduce acidity; can also try a few pinches baking soda)
  
• 1 tsp sea salt

Optional:

• 1 lb organic ground beef, turkey, tofu, etc
• Garlic, chopped, to taste

Place all ingredients aside from meat into medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir over heat until celery becomes soft. Cook meat and/or garlic if using, and stir it into sauce. Use for topping pastas, lasagna, etc. Refrigerate unused portion.

Cheesy Broccoli Stalk Anti-Inflammatory Lasagna

Tired of wasting all those leftover broccoli stalks after eating the flowered parts off? Try this: boil the stalks and slice them up afterwards, then put them in the blender with some rice cheese, goat cheese, or whatever cheese you like.

Broccoli, along with cauliflower, bell peppers and cabbage are known as anti-inflammatory vegetables--in other words, very good for anyone with any sort of disease process going on. In addition, using the stalks in this manner can save money by stretching the cheese via the broccoli puree, which retains a ricotta-like texture. As well, the broccoli adds a significant amount of fibre, whereas cheese usually contains zero fibre.


First, we make the cheese mixture:

• 1 or 2 leftover broccoli stalks, sliced up for easy boiling
• 1 medium zucchini, sliced
• 12 oz dairy cheese or rice cheese (can use cottage cheese, tofu, rice cheese, soy cheese, cream cheese, whatever suits)
• 1 egg (optional)
• 1 tsp sea salt

Next, you'll need these ingredients:

• 10 oz grated solid cheese (rice, soy, dairy, mixture, etc., whatever works for you)
• 6 or 7 lasagna noodles (I use the Tinkyada rice variety)
• 2 c or so Savory Meat and/or Veggie Sauce or your own favourite tomato sauce

First, boil lasagna noodles until tender, set aside. Next, boil sliced broccoli stalks until soft, but still bright green. Throw into blender and puree. Add all other ingredients except grated cheese, lasagna noodles and Savory Meat and/or Veggie Sauce. and puree. You'll have a thick, pale green veggie/cheese mixture to layer between lasagna noodles. To this mixture, add half the grated cheese and stir. This will give the veggie/cheese mixture a nice, gooey texture.

In large oven-safe baking pan (glass is best), pour a thin layer of sauce to start. Next, place a layer of wet noodles, then spread part of veggie/cheese mixture onto that. Keep layering per your preference, then top with sauce and remaining grated cheese, so it'll bake up all bubbly'n'nice.

Bake for 45-50 minutes, or until done (steam rises from knife cut in centre), in 375 degree oven. Let cool for 5 min., slice to desired portion size and serve hot. Refrigerate leftovers.

• Optional: try substituting cauliflower stalks for broccoli stalks in this recipe. All good.
  

Quick Non-Dairy, No Gluten White Sauce

Here is a white sauce that uses no dairy and no gluten at all.  The way I make it, it is vegan, but  you can experiment with the ingredients as you like, using whatever suits.  My system doesn't like dairy (at all) and does better without too much gluten.

• 1 c milk (I use unsweetened almond milk, sometimes mixing in a little coconut milk)
• 1 tb tapioca flour

Heat milk over low-medium heat until warm, then turn heat up to medium.  Remove several tablespoons of the warmed liquid into small bowl and add tapioca flour, mixing until smooth.  Return mixture to pan on medium heat, stirring just until boiling point (it should thicken a bit), then remove from heat.

Use this with any recipe calling for a white sauce.  You may use any multiple of the ingredients (i.e., 2 c milk and 2 tb tapioca flour, etc), add seasoning, herbs and chicken and mix with pasta, etc.  Very easy and versatile, and if you stir in sweetener (to your taste) to the above recipe with some vanilla extract while heating, you'll have a quick vanilla pudding for dessert.  Also try adding cocoa powder (stir in while heating) or adding fresh fruit once cooled.  Refrigerate unused portion.  No limits on what you can do with this.

Quick, Rich Gluten-Free "Breaded" Italian Veggie Casserole

My Quick, Rich Gluten-Free "Breaded" Italian Veggie Casserole is something I happened upon when I bought a bunch of veggies and herbs, but when I got home I realized I forgot the rice pasta that was supposed to be the anchor for the dish.

But no matter, this spur-of-the-moment recipe turned out to be absolutely dee-lish and even lower carb than I had planned. This is so easy to throw together and so great that if you feed it to your guests they will think it came from a fancy restaurant and you spent gobs of time making it for them (definitely use as leverage!). You'll need about 5-10 minutes prep time and 55 min bake time:

• 1/2 large organic white or yellow onion, chopped
• 2 oz. organic fresh basil (about 50 grams or so), chopped
• 3 medium-sized organic zucchini, sliced, about 1 cm thick each slice
• 3 organic roma tomatos, sliced about same thickness as zucchini

In large glass oven-proof baking pan, pour about 2 tb olive oil. Stir chopped/sliced veggies into pan to just coat with the oil. Next you'll need:

• Garlic powder, organic if possible
• Dried organic oregano
• Sea salt, organic if possible
• Almond meal, organic if possible

The above three ingredients you may add to taste. I used about a teaspoon of garlic powder (enough to coat the veggies lightly when stirred again), several shakes of oregano (at least a few teaspoons for flavour) and about 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt. Stir the sea salt and veggies again to distribute salt. Spread mixture evenly in pan, then coat with 3/4 to 1 cup of almond meal (again, to your taste where you can use more or less). Veggies can be peeking through in spots here and there, but it should have a nice coating on top.

Sprinkle top of almond meal with another pinch or two of sea salt, then place in 400 degree oven for 55 minutes. Almond meal will be brown on the peaks and veggies will be soft, but not mushy. Cut into serving sizes of your choice and use spatula to serve. Refrigerate unused portion to reheat later on.