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.