What are you cooking?

[Bliss Doubt]

Well, also, mexico isnt exactly the first country one thinks of when discussing a goverment that has the best interests of its people in mind

Edit-beware the soup kabal, lol

You know, Mexico has changed a lot under Obrador. It has become a bastion of reason on this continent. When the Cootie19 lockdowns were being enforced, Mexico stopped playing. They did at first, the "two weeks to flatten the curve", but after that when alcaldes and regional governors wanted more lockdowns, one of them was found on a beach with his head cut off, and another one was also executed in a bizarre public way. Mexico moved on from Cootie19 long before any other country.

We just don't realize that many of the people flooding through our southern border are not from Mexico anymore, but are from countries south of Mexico, where lockdowns were extended for more than a year, and as long as two years. People were not allowed to go outdoors and work their fields, which went to ruin. We're talking about flowers, fruit and other agricultural products. These generations old family farms were ruined, so that multinational food growers/producers could scoop up that land, while the UN handed out money and sneakers and said "go north, you'll be taken in at the US southern border. It was done to Africa too.

So after GMO growing and glyphosate have, for these many years, threatened Mexico's abundant organic agriculture and heirloom seed, it is hardly an immediate reaction to say "no more". I hope they are successful at setting this precedent.

 

[Mister]

I wouldnt mind seeing southern mexico, the problem has alway been driving thru the drug cartel northern area, for me at least

 

[Bliss Doubt]

I wouldnt mind seeing southern mexico, the problem has alway been driving thru the drug cartel northern area, for me at least

Cartels, arguably, run all of Mexico, but some say the same is true of the US. Where will the Palestine Ohio people go for redress? Nowhere. Courts won't hear it. Our country is run by multinational corporations, as is much of the world. "Cartel" is just a word that can describe any unelected power structure.

 

[Jimi]

So mexico thinks they r bad enough to ban immediately but campbells soup doesnt.

And ppl wonder why its impossible to eat healthy anymore

This is one reason I urge everyone to home garden. So many people don't even know about Bio-sludge which passed for use a couple years ago. For those who don't know bio-sludge is Human Waist and with it comes all the big pharma drugs that people that created this waist took. Doesn't do anything for my apatite, just crazy.
So IMHO the only truly safe food is the food that you grow

 

[Jimi]

It's reall scary how powerful the multinational corporations are, that they can trounce all over a foreign country for trying to establish its own better policy for the benefit of the people.

Some big corporations wont take produce that is not GMO grown, insanity

 

[Bliss Doubt]

This is one reason I urge everyone to home garden. So many people don't even know about Bio-sludge which passed for use a couple years ago. For those who don't know bio-sludge is Human Waist and with it comes all the big pharma drugs that people that created this waist took. Doesn't do anything for my apatite, just crazy.
So IMHO the only truly safe food is the food that you grow

You know, what I'm about to say will be controversial, but without the pharma content, human waste could be a substitute for the fertilizer shortage (the planned, staged, engineered fertilizer shortage), but with the drug content, especially the birth control hormonal content, I wouldn't want it.

They use human waste as crop fertilizer in China, always have. It's composted. You wouldn't want raw cow manure on crops either. The pork farms, your Smithfield and so forth, produce a stadium full of shisz that is just an offensive stench and a disease vector, completely wasted. Wasted waste, haha.

 

[Jimi]

but with the drug content, especially the birth control hormonal content, I wouldn't want it.

Yes this is a major reason not to use it Americans use more Pharma drugs than any other nation.

 

[Bliss Doubt]

EDIT EDIT EDIT EDIT EDIT EDIT EDIT EDIT EDIT EDIT EDIT EDIT EDIT EDIT EDIT EDIT EDIT !!!!

See my cauli-taco take 3 below.

I did my cauli-taco take 2 today. It was definitely an improvement over the first try, but IMO, still not there, though it does work without that loud cruciferous taste coming through like before.

This time I used fresh raw riced cauilflower (last time it was frozen), and this time I used only one 14-oz. package.


(stock photo, but this is the one I used)

I used about two thirds of a large onion diced small, but this time I measured out how much that was, 1.5 cups, plus a large jalapeno diced.

Melted the vegan butter, added the onion, jalapeno, the package of riced cauliflower, plenty of salt, and was patient while it browned. It gets a bit nerve wracking when it starts to brown, because a fond forms in the pan, but as long as steam is rising, just keep moving the wetter part of the mixture over the fond to keep it from burning. When all the mixture is browned and moving the juicy part over the fond is no longer working to dissolve the fond, add the spices:

A heaping tablespoon smoked paprika
A level tablespoon ground cumin
Red pepper flakes, about a tablespoon

Stir and turn just about 30 seconds more to toast the spices, then add one can of chopped tomatoes with green chilies. No need to drain it, you'll need the moisture to get the fond and toasted spices up from the bottom of the pan. Stir. Add some fresh thyme or parsley, or whatever herb you want, and a mega ton of crushed garlic (I used five large cloves). Stir and turn, add a little water if necessary. Let it simmer a few minutes to marry the flavors. Taste for salt, add more if needed. After simmering until it dries out, turn the heat back up to high to get the bits crispy, then take it off heat.

It really looks like taco meat!



That's enough to make a lot of tacos. I tasted it by itself. Pretty good, better than the last try. I tried it alone on a corn shell. Good. Then assembled my breakfast-lunch incl. lettuce, tomato, a little guacamole (chopped avocado would have been better) and some leftover restaurant salsa:



Tex-mex, like true Mexican meat tacos, have not traditionally included shredded cheese the way fast food tacos always have. Meat plus cheese is a protein glut, and a waste of food. In recent years this has changed, and many authentic Mexican restaurants do include grated cheese on tacos. I didn't put any on these today, but I did end up going back in the kitchen to add a little sour cream. Remember, there is no meat in these. The sour cream brought the overall flavor up to "almost there". There are vegan cheeses and sour cream.

After this second batch, I think maybe Jimi's idea to use some chili powder is very much worth trying. I do have another 14 oz. bag of the riced cauli, so at least one more experiment will result. I wonder if a dash of vinegar would be good.

I have a lot of cauli-meat left over, and a couple of ideas for what else to add, so I may be back in a day or two with another report. For now, this worked, and made a very tasty breakfast-lunch.

 

[Mister]

I been waiting for this...

You should do a cook book, they used to be one of my best sellers

 

[Bliss Doubt]

I been waiting for this...

You should do a cook book, they used to be one of my best sellers

Thank you Mr_Nobody. You always have kind words.

As I said, this mixture is "almost there". I'd be interested to know if you have any ideas once you try this. I think you would want cheese and/or sour cream on yours. I hate to say it, but I think a tablespoon or two of ketchup in the cooking of the cauli-meat might help it. It wouldn't come through as a ketchup taste, but would just mellow it. Again, I'm still working this out.

 

[Mister]

U can call me whatever u want, just dont call me late for dinner...

 

[Jimi]

I did my cauli-taco take 2 today. It was definitely an improvement over the first try, but IMO, still not there, though it does work without that loud cruciferous taste coming through like before.

This time I used raw riced cauilflower, and this time I used only one 14-oz. package.

View attachment 202858
(stock photo, but this is the one I used)

I used about two thirds of a large onion diced small, but this time I measured out how much that was, 1.5 cups, plus a large jalapeno diced.

Melted the vegan butter, added the onion, jalapeno, the package of riced cauliflower, plenty of salt, and was patient while it browned. It gets a bit nerve wracking when it starts to brown, because a fond forms in the pan, but as long as steam is rising, just keep moving the wetter part of the mixture over the fond to keep it from burning. When all the mixture is browned and moving the juicy part over the fond is no longer working to dissolve the fond, add the spices:

A heaping tablespoon smoked paprika
A level tablespoon ground cumin
Red pepper flakes, about a tablespoon

Stir and turn just about 30 seconds more to toast the spices, then add one can of chopped tomatoes with green chilies. No need to drain it, you'll need the moisture. Stir. Add some fresh thyme or parsley, or whatever herb you want, and a mega ton of crushed garlic (I used five large cloves). Stir and turn, add a little water if necessary, taste for salt. Let it simmer a few minutes to marry the flavors. Taste for salt, add more if needed.

It really looks like taco meat!

View attachment 202859

That's enough to make a lot of tacos. I tasted it by itself. Pretty good, better than the last try. I tried it alone on a corn shell. Good. Then assembled my breakfast-lunch incl. lettuce, tomato, a little guacamole (chopped avocado would have been better) and some leftover restaurant salsa:

View attachment 202860

Tex-mex, like true Mexican meat tacos, have not traditionally included shredded cheese the way fast food tacos always have. Meat plus cheese is a protein glut, and a waste of food. In recent years this has changed, and many authentic Mexican restaurants do include grated cheese on tacos. I didn't put any on these today, but I did end up going back in the kitchen to add a little sour cream. Remember, there is no meat in these. The sour cream brought the overall flavor up to "almost there". There are vegan cheeses and sour cream.

I have a lot of cauli-meat left over, and a couple of ideas for what else to add, so I may be back in a day or two with another report. For now, this worked, and made a very tasty breakfast-lunch.

This looks so good I can't wait to try it, thank you for sharing this with us my friend
I have been waitin for this, already got my Cauliflower and most of the other ingredients. Goin to the store soon to get the rest.

 

[Mister]

Uggh, my stomach is in knots this morning.

 

[Bliss Doubt]

This looks so good I can't wait to try it, thank you for sharing this with us my friend
I have been waitin for this, already got my Cauliflower and most of the other ingredients. Goin to the store soon to get the rest.

I would love it if you'd let me know how yours turns out.

 

[Jimi]

I would love it if you'd let me know how yours turns out.

I sure will

 

[Bliss Doubt]

I finally found some chickpea flour to try things with. Unfortunately it's godawful expensive, 6.49 for one pound of the organic.


Stock photo, but this is the kind I used.

I loosely followed this video, 1 minute 39 seconds:

The vid doesn't have written measurements of the ingredients, but it appears to use less tapioca than chickpea flour, so I used two cups of the chickpea, one cup of the tapioca, and salt. I wanted to use arrowroot instead of tapioca, but the store didn't have any arrowroot. I did something not mentioned in the video, but which I've seen in others, which is to let the batter sit a few minutes to hydrate.



Then, not included in the vid, right before cooking, I whisked in a third cup of sunflower oil, because flour tortillas do contain fat. In days of old that was lard, and some restaurants still use that, but mostly nowadays flour tortillas are made with vegetable shortening. The oil didn't hurt this recipe, but I wish I'd just done it the way she showed it, at least for the first try. I think maybe it was the addition of the oil that made mine taste like french fries. I'm not complaining though.

I don't have a nonstick pan, so I used a generous amount of sunflower oil for frying on medium heat. The first one was a total fail, so I didn't take a pic. I don't know if that's because of the oil, or just the time it takes to bring the pan and oil up to full temp. As Jacques Pepin once said, the first one is always for the dog. I wiped out the pan and melted a generous amount of vegan butter. The next one was perrrrfect!



Then I made more, and made them smaller.



Mmmm, really good. I tasted one plain, then spread some apple butter on the next one. I made only a small batch of batter because I want to try other things with this small one pound bag of chickpea flour, but the small batch of batter made one large and four small flatbreads.

Granny's in the cellar
You can surely smell her
Makin' flapjacks on that greasy stove
From her eye she wipes matter
Right into the batter
And she wheezes while the sniff goes out her nose.

 

[Jimi]

I just had too the way food is anymore ​

 

[Bliss Doubt]

I had one 14oz bag of raw riced cauliflower left, so today I did my final recipe experiment for making cauliflower into taco meat. If that didn't work I was ready to abandon, and stop wrestling cauliflower to try and make it taste like meat.

So Jimi was right. On take 3, I skipped the smoked paprika and used two level tablespoons chili powder and only 1/2 tablespoon ground cumin, red pepper flakes, fresh thyme. Everything else in the recipe same as Take 2, method same, except that after the canned tomatoes and garlic are added and it simmers to marry the flavors and evaporate, don't reheat it to crisp it up. That burns it a little bit. No need for that. If it's too juicy you can drain it through a mesh strainer. I didn't have to do that. As it cooled it dried out perfectly enough to use as taco filling.

Much, much much better. It really tastes good. I'm serving it to dinner guests tonight with taco shells refreshed in the oven, shredded lettuce, chopped ripe avocado, grated cheese if they want it, sour cream if they want it, and salsa. Rice and beans on the side.

So, gotta log out, finish work and get ready for guests tonite. I'm running ragged, but wanted to catch Jimi before he could try my previous recipe in Take 2.

 

[Jimi]

I had one 14oz bag of raw riced cauliflower left, so today I did my final recipe experiment for making cauliflower into taco meat. If that didn't work I was ready to abandon, and stop wrestling cauliflower to try and make it taste like meat.

So Jimi was right. On take 3, I skipped the smoked paprika and used two level tablespoons chili powder and only 1/2 tablespoon ground cumin, red pepper flakes, fresh thyme. Everything else in the recipe same as Take 2, method same, except that after the canned tomatoes and garlic are added and it simmers to marry the flavors and evaporate, don't reheat it to crisp it up. That burns it a little bit. No need for that. If it's too juicy you can drain it through a mesh strainer. I didn't have to do that. As it cooled it dried out perfectly enough to use as taco filling.

Much, much much better. It really tastes good. I'm serving it to dinner guests tonight with taco shells refreshed in the oven, shredded lettuce, chopped ripe avocado, grated cheese if they want it, sour cream if they want it, and salsa. Rice and beans on the side.

So, gotta log out, finish work and get ready for guests tonite. I'm running ragged, but wanted to catch Jimi before he could try my previous recipe in Take 2.

Can I come to supper tonight
Thank You my Friend, now I am glad I waited, anxious to give this a try

 

[VapeOn1960]

I made this yesterday but forgot to post.
And yes... real men DO eat quiche. Used a pre-made crust (Marie Callender deep dish) sauteed onions, then sauteed some fresh spinach with those, added pre-cooked bacon bits and shredded cheese mix. It was so good! Have leftovers for today. This is the website that gave me tips on making quiche:
https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/quiche-recipe/

 

[VapeOn1960]

I made quiche years ago and it was OK but not as good as this one. I didn't know you have to pre-bake the crust part way first (15-20 min) Also cover the edge of the crust with foil (after the pre-bake)

 

[Mister]

quiche is amazing

 

[Bliss Doubt]

Can I come to supper tonight

I think you would have enjoyed it. Everybody liked the cauli-tacos except for one person who said she hates cauliflower and could taste it. There was plenty else here for her to eat.

You won't believe what I did with the leftovers a couple of days later, but first another recipe edit. When I pulled the leftovers out of the fridge I noticed the congealed orange grease. I used a LOT more vegan butter on Take 3 than I did the previous two times, and I think that made a big difference. After all, buttered, salted cauliflower is delicious with nothing else, so you start there.

Anyway, I'd bought two pounds of organic ginger root for 5.99, which I felt was remarkable. You never see organic whole ginger root in the stores, so I grabbed it. It was sitting in the fridge, and needed to have something done with it before I could let it sit around and go bad. I put most of it in the freezer, the rest back in the fridge, except for one big piece with fingers, about 2.5 inches, which I grated up. It made about three times as much as I'm picturing here.



With chili, garlic and cumin you get Mexican. With chili, garlic and ginger you get Asian, so I made lettuce cups like they make in Asian restaurants. Iceberg lettuce cups would have been sturdier and bigger, but I only had romaine on hand, so I used that. Anyway, the leftovers were just for me, nobody here to impress. I stacked a smaller leaf inside a larger one for each cup. I heated the leftover cauli-meat mixture, added all that grated ginger, let it cool so it wouldn't cook the lettuce, filled the cups (canoes), and here was the outcome:



I think I liked it better even than the cauli-tacos.

 

[DogMan]

Lazy but almost healthy, excluding butter

 

[Burnie]

Slow cooked Bacon cooked at 250 degrees for 2 hours





Best way to cook bacon.

 

[Bliss Doubt]

I just love the flavor this chickpea flour in recipes. It tastes nothing like chickpeas or beans. It just tastes very savory. I have this expensive bag of the organic, and wanted ideas for how to use it before it could sit around and go rancid. So I log onto VU, and what do I see? VapeOn1960 inspiring me to try it for a vegan quiche! I looked up recipes online, and got further inspiration from Elavegan.com, mainly because of the veggies she used in hers, especially the pretty little baby tomatoes pushed into the batter. I didn't use a crust at all. After all, my batter already has tapioca flour in it (I'm pretty sure you could use arrowroot instead). I didn't use garlic. I'm just used to thinking, by French cooking tradition, that egg dishes and garlic don't go together, both flavors being very strong, but in an eggless quiche I guess some garlic could be good. Anyway this was delicious without it.

I cooked some slivered onions in vegan butter, with salt. When the onion was browned, I added a couple of handfuls of fresh baby spinach. Spinach wilts down to nothing immediately. I added a pinch of nutmeg, stirred it all up, removed the veg from heat and let it cool to evaporate some, to prevent soggy quiche, but I didn't strain it because Elavegan actually added veg broth to her batter. I didn't.



Then mixed two cups chickpea flour, one cup tapioca flour, plenty of salt, and enough water to mix to a batter about the consistency of cake batter. While the batter sat a few minutes to hydrate, I cut the baby tomatoes in half.

Then stirred the cooled veggies into the batter, along with some red pepper flakes and fresh thyme, then scraped it all into the greased quiche pan. Then placed each tiny tomato half on top, put the pie in the oven at 450 degrees. Elavegan's recipe says 430 degrees for up to 45 minutes, but I went hotter at 450 for 30 minutes, because I wanted mine to get crusty on the sides and top. The last steps after it cooled: a painstaking tiny pinch of salt on each tomato, and the basil ribbons.



It was beyond delicious. It did get crusty on the sides and bottom. I'm going back to the kitchen for seconds now.

 

[Mister]

So here it goes

1 diced onion per 1 cup rice
1/2 can sugar snap peas (or other vegetable) per 1 cup rice
Combine Sesame oil and mirin and veggies in a wok till it sauted
Crack an egg, let it fry up a bit in the onions and peas
add in quart of pre cooked rice.
Douse with more sesame oil and soy sauce.
And continue to fry up folding it over with a spatula to even out till it gets to where u want it

It may not be 'proper' fried rice, if there is such a thing, i know it looks a little light but its darker in real life, and its extremely good

 

[Bliss Doubt]

So here it goes

1/2 diced onion
1/3 can sugar snap peas (or other vegetable)
Combine Sesame oil and mirin and veggies in a wok till it sauted
Crack an egg, let it fry up a bit in the onions and peas
add in quart of pre cooked rice.
Douse with more sesame oil and soy sauce.
And continue to fry up folding it over with a spatula to even out till it gets to where u want it

It may not be 'proper' fried rice, if there is such a thing, i know it looks a little light but its darker in real life, and its extremely good

To me there is no such thing as "proper" anything, unless it's in an argument about what is or isn't authentic or traditional, and even then, I know enough about regional cooking to know that individual communities within a larger community will have their own iron clad differences.

Your fried rice looks yummy.

 

[Mister]

I can finally hold my head high in this thread, lol

Thank u

 

[Bliss Doubt]

I can finally hold my head high in this thread, lol

Thank u

It's been a while since you posted of pic of your cooking, but I think you could always hold your head high in this thread!

 

[Jimi]

So here it goes

1 diced onion per 1 cup rice
1/2 can sugar snap peas (or other vegetable) per 1 cup rice
Combine Sesame oil and mirin and veggies in a wok till it sauted
Crack an egg, let it fry up a bit in the onions and peas
add in quart of pre cooked rice.
Douse with more sesame oil and soy sauce.
And continue to fry up folding it over with a spatula to even out till it gets to where u want it

It may not be 'proper' fried rice, if there is such a thing, i know it looks a little light but its darker in real life, and its extremely goodView attachment 203063Mmm that looks real good

 

[Bliss Doubt]

Have some leftover chili I brought home from the Mexican restaurant, not much. Gonna heat it up and put it over the leftover Spanish rice. A tortilla on the side.

 

[Jimi]

Had salad for lunch/dinner, started out with organic mixed greens (spinach, chard, rockets, and baby kale) then a small amount of organic lettuce, onion from my garden, organic celery, organic apple, organic pear a big load of organic sauerkraut, and walnuts to top

Salad dressing is:
Organic olive oil
Organic apple cider vinegar
and a small splash of organic maple syrup

 

[Bliss Doubt]

View attachment 203468

Had salad for lunch/dinner, started out with organic mixed greens (spinach, chard, rockets, and baby kale) then a small amount of organic lettuce, onion from my garden, organic celery, organic apple, organic pear a big load of organic sauerkraut, and walnuts to top

Salad dressing is:
Organic olive oil
Organic apple cider vinegar
and a small splash of organic maple syrup

Jimi you nailed it! Great photo. That looks like a lovely nutritious salad.

 

[Jimi]

Jimi you nailed it! Great photo. That looks like a lovely nutritious salad.

Thank you it was VERY tasty too, dressing came out great too

 

[Bliss Doubt]

My pretty prepper corn fruit salad for today's breakfast-lunch:



One can corn, drained
Dragon fruit chips broken up
Freeze dried blueberries
Pickled sweet jalapenos (fine to sub fresh jalapeno or bell pepper if you have it on hand)
Raw pumpkin seeds
Grated fresh ginger
Red pepper flakes
Fresh thyme
Dash of cinnamon

Delicious just like that for a side, but for a main dish you can add a protein of your choice, prepper canned chicken or shredded leftover chicken you cooked, or sour cream or a glug of heavy cream, or some drained, rinsed kidney beans or other sweet bean, leftover sliced brisket or chopped ham or pepperoni, really whatever you can think of. I ended up adding some plain yogurt.

Or you can stretch it out with cooked rice and add a dressing of oil and apple cider vinegar, or ranch or whatever dressing you like.

I didn't add salt but you can.

There is plenty leftover for the weekend.

I wish someone would start a prepper thread on VU.

 

[Bliss Doubt]

Aaaah, alone at last.

This was the conversation this morning:

Phone: ring... ring... ring...

Me: Go away, I'm sleeping. But, a few minutes later...

Phone: ring... ring... ring...

Me: (rising from my bed in a cloud of my cussing)... Hello?

My friend: I'm hungry, let's get a group together and go out for brunch.

Me: No, let's not make people work for us on a holiday, just come here instead. I was out late last night, so let's make it 1 o'clock lunch instead of brunch.

Friend: Today is a holiday? I'm hungry now.

Me: Eat a sandwich. I have to shower while asleep and cook in my sleep. 1 o'clock, and please call the others because I have to get everything ready while asleep, then let me know how many are coming.

Friend: Okay, sleep well.

end of conversation

Like everything else in my life, it was a whirlwind. Into the shower, then cooking in my bathrobe with wet hair.

I went with easy things:

Homemade creamy tomato vodka soup from my prepper canned tomato supply, sauteed shallots, heavy cream, vodka, garlic granules, fresh thyme, some grated parm sprinkled in for salty richness, red pepper flakes.

Garlic toast from the freezer.

I'd just shopped for groceries Thursday, so I had some good fresh ingredients on hand too.

I made spinach artichoke dip from fresh baby spinach, plus my prepper canned water pack artichokes drained and chopped, low fat cream cheese, grated romano, red pepper flakes and this alfredo sauce (a prepper supply approaching its expiration date):



Packaged bread sticks for dipping, and some trimmed celery hearts for dipping.



I put out a bowl of fresh blueberries with organic fruitjuice based gummy bears tossed in (I know, ridiculous, but every last morsel of that got eaten),

A bowl of my go-to fresh snack hors d'oeuvre, baby tomatoes.

Finally, the rest of my Delizza cream puffs (they don't even have to be cooked, and are sooooooooo yummy). They don't come with frosting so I dusted them with powdered sugar. They were the talk of the town. I also opened up a large dark chocolate bar for people to break off squares if they wanted it.

Coffee, and I always have several flavors of sparkling water on hand. I served a bottle of my go-to party libation, prosecco.

The cooking wasn't hard really, even while asleep, the dip in one pan, the soup in one pot, the garlic toast from freezer to oven.

I think everybody left happy and full. We're good eaters, God love us.

 

[Mister]

Vodka soup for 'breakfast'...best way to start one of those 'day afters', lol

And spinach aritchoke dip ftw, definitely

 

[Bliss Doubt]

Toasted baguette slices and cafe creme. I woke up knowing what I wanted, but had to wait until midmorning for the intermittent fasting schedule.



For a slow Saturday of doing nothing. I'm hemming a top I bought, cleaning up this place. A slow day means I will not WILL NOT look at client emails, since they could have gotten me any day this past week between 6am and 8pm, which were the hours I worked.

 

[Mister]

I went with chicken soup today

 

[Bliss Doubt]

I went with chicken soup today

What a lovely garden setting.

 

[nadalama]

I went with chicken soup todayView attachment 204204

Chicken soup is some wonderful stuff!

 

[Bliss Doubt]

I watched a YouTuber describe how adding peanut butter to the ramen flavoring that comes with the noodles will really ramp up the flavor of the dish. She was using a brand of ramen that had the powdered flavoring. I use one that has a squeeze packet of super hot liquid flavoring.

As I have described previously, I don't eat ramen noodles, but I love those flavoring packets, a specific flavor I wouldn't know how to copy, and ramen is cheap, so I buy them and give away the noodles, but keep the flavoring packets. In place of the noodles, I use Pasta Zero, delicious noodles with no calories. You have to start by emptying the noodles into a colander and rinsing them really well, then salt well, then drain well.





Here I will caution that the various brands of konjac noodles, sometimes called shirataki or miracle noodles, have all sorts of ingredients in addition to the konjac root. I avoid those that contain soy.

I always use butter for the stir frying. It's necessary to get the right flavor from konjac noodles, whether you're doing Asian or Italian with them.

So to make:

Trunut peanut butter powder
Your favorite ramen flavoring packet and flake
A few cloves garlic crushed
Butter
An inch of fresh ginger finely chopped
Chopped cabbage (optional, but I had it so I used some)
Half a small onion slivered
One medium jalapeno sliced
Plenty of salt
Red pepper flakes, optional
Fresh snow pea pods

A tablespoon of sugar is optional. I don't do it, but Asian restaurants use sugar, so some will prefer that.

Soy sauce or tamari is optional. I didn't find it necessary.

Sauce:

A few tablespoons Trunut organic peanut butter powder mixed with water, stirred up to a thin consistency, not a spreadable consistency. Squeeze in the ramen flavoring packet, add the packet of flake, the crushed garlic, pinch of salt, and stir it all up to mix well.

Melt the butter, and when sizzling, in with all your veg except for the snow peas. When the veg begins to sizzle, and brown, in with the prepared Pasta Zero (see above for proper prep). Let it cook until the pasta begins to brown just a little bit. Being konjac based, not flour based, a little browning really enhances the flavor.

Then in with the peanut butter sauce, and I had to use tongs to get it evenly distributed to all the noodles.

The snowpea pods go in last, just to heat, keeping their crisp freshness.

I forgot the red pepper flakes, but the Buldak ramen flavoring I used is so hot, it doesn't really matter.



I didn't add up the calories, but they'll never be excessive in a dish like this. The whole package of Pasta Zero has 45 calories. I used two packages of noodles for the pan full pictured, and have enough leftovers for another meal. The rest is fresh veg and seasonings. The butter is as much or as little as you feel you can get away with using, to get a little browning on everything. The powdered peanut butter is 25 calories per tablespoon.

 

[Mister]

Any time ya talkin ramen u talkin my language, lol

Looks delicious

 

[Bliss Doubt]

Any time ya talkin ramen u talkin my language, lol

Ramen is a craving for me, and when it comes, it has to be answered.

I hope you'll enjoy it if you try it. You can use powdered ginger if you don't have the fresh root. There is no reason not to use any other veg you like and have on hand: mushrooms, sugar snaps instead of snowpeas, bell pepper. Or you can just use what comes in the cheap ramen noodle packet. It's all as you like. Really the only trick here was the thing I saw from the YouTuber who mixed peanut butter with the ramen flavor packet. Otherwise she was just demonstrating using the store bought ramen packet.

 

[Bliss Doubt]

The best revenge for having to endure a Monday is good grub. I don't mean grubs, thank you very much Klaus Schwab.

I made fresh chunky guacamole from organic avocado, salt and leftover restaurant salsa, enjoyed with Zak's organic heirloom corn tortilla chips.



For dessert, some beautiful organic strawberries with chocolate PB2, which is still only 25 cal. per tablespoon. I mix it a bit thin for dipping. I like it better than Nutella, no mystery ingredients, rich tasting and much lower in calories.





Mmm. But if Klaus drops by I'm sure I can serve him a few doodlebugs from the front garden. They love munching the mulch I made from dead sago palm fronds.

 

[Bliss Doubt]

For @Jimi

An easy refreshing summer dish.

I looked for a YouTube recipe, and there are some good ones, but it doesn't have to be as complicated as some of them are. I've made it many times.

You already have a favorite garlic dressing, no?

If you haven't tried spaghetti squash, you'll be surprised at how it looks like any squash, but after it's cooked you scrape out the pile of naturally occurring shreds. The finished dish kind of looks like vermicelli. I won't try to make you think it tastes like pasta. It doesn't, but it doesn't really taste like squash either. It has its own unique flavor, and it's delicious.

Anyway, if you don't like cutting big squashes because they fly across the room or you feel like you're going to cut off your arm trying to halve that big spaghetti squash football with a big knife, you can just poke lots of holes or slits in it and bake at 350 or 400 degrees. Or cut it in half, scrape out the seeds and bake it with cut sides down. I can smell it when it's done, but look for it to be soft and the skin to press down easily. There will be some browning on the outside. Let it cool down some, then cut it in half if you've baked it whole, and scrape out the seeds. Use a fork to scrape out the shreds, and place those in your serving dish.

Add plenty of salt and your favorite vegan butter or garlicky dressing. Better yet, make some fresh basil garlic pesto in your food processor. Throw on some beautiful cherry tomatoes and your fave vegan mozza balls. Top with freshly ground black pepper and/or red pepper flakes.

Really I think two people need two squashes for a nice big filling supper, and if it doesn't take that much to satisfy both of you, you'll have leftovers, so who cares.

Here's a pic I stole from Food Network. I think now I want to make this myself soon, but I have a lot of other fresh groceries to get through first.

 

[Jimi]

Wow, thank you my friend , that really looks delicious, I love spaghetti squash, was thinkin about growin it this year again and tryin a new cherry mater too so this will come together great. I don't trust the store maters, even the organic

 

[Jimi]

How to Tell if an Egg Is Bad​

https://www.tasteofhome.com/article/how-to-tell-if-eggs-are-fresh/?_cmp=TestKitchenInsider&_ebid=TestKitchenInsider582023&_mid=600837&ehid=28223e67fa443c9ae4c01016e4295d4b2282e97e&os_ehash=28223e67fa443c9ae4c01016e4295d4b2282e97e&_PermHash=51d40377a39a0125488f5bb1d417962f283b45b108f98cd2c22197691549b81a&tohMagStatus=NONE

 

[Jimi]

A sweetener chart for the health minded

BEST SWEETENERS ​ Blackstrap molasses, molasses Coconut sugar; (crystals and syrup) Dates Honey (raw, unfiltered) Maple syrup (real one) Yakon syrup Unprocessed stevia (a natural sweetener) Pure monk fruit (a natural sweetener) JUST OK ​ Cane juice and sugar Date sugar and syrup Stevia; brands such as Stevia in the Raw, SweetLeaf Monk fruit (mixed most often with erythritol)​

BEST AVOIDED ​ ​

Agave and agave nectar (high in fructose) Barley malt Beet sugar Brown rice syrup Brown sugar Carob syrup Corn syrup Dextran and dextrose Ethyl maltol Fructose Fruit juice concentrate Glucose Golden sugar/syrup Grape sugar High -fructose corn syrup Lactose Malt syrup Maltodextrin Maltose Manninol Raw sugar Sorbitol Sorghum syrup Sucrose Turbinado Table or white sugar Xylitol

DO NOT CONSUME ​ Acesulfame Potassium (Sweet One) Aspartame (Equal, NutraSweet) Saccharin (Sweet’N Low) Stevia (White, bleached, or highly processed; stevia such as Truvia and Sun Crystals) Sucralose (Splenda)​