Some Food I Made This Week

I haven't felt much like cooking this week. It's hot out and stuff.  But here are a couple of dinners that I managed to put together and felt worthy of committing to blog-memory.

Cooking out -- veggie burgers, corn with garlic butter, grilled peaches.

Spelt crust pizza with cashew cheeze, tomatoes, basil from my garden, and grilled corn left over from the night before.

I made another batch of kale chips in the dehydrator, this time using Averie's recipe. I've made them in the oven before, but this way is so much better. Oven chips have to be eaten right away or they get soggy, but these keep in the fridge for days. My dehydrator cost $60 and it's going to pay for itself in kale chips, in no time at all.

I had a couple of dehydrator failures this week as well. I tried making the rye bread and corn tortillas from Ani's Raw Food Essentials. After ten hours of dehydrating, they were still goopy and messy, and tasted pretty gross. I don't own a fancy Excalibur dehydrator like Ani uses, so maybe something was lost there. But I did get good results with her eggplant bacon.  I'm looking forward to having it on BLT's for lunches this week.

Thoughts on dehydrating so far...it's nice to not have to turn the oven on or mess up any pots and pans. But it's labor-intensive in other ways. Cashews have to be pre-soaked in bowls. The food processor gets used a lot. And the dehydrator screens must be cleaned after use. So there is still dishwashing to be done. Also, pre-planning is a must. If you think you might want some kale chips for lunch tomorrow, you best get on that tonight. And don't wait too long because you can't leave the dehydrator running and go to bed!

 I hope today is less eventful than yesterday. A guy hit my car in the H-E-B parking lot. He backed into me and I couldn't go anywhere because there was another car right behind me. Luckily, me and the kids are totally fine and there is just a minor scrape on my bumper. The man was Canadian, so of course he apologized like 20 times and that was actually kind of funny.

 

Dehydrator Trial Run

My dehydrator is here!

I decided to do a test run by making some kale chips. For the first go, I was mostly interested in keeping an eye on the time and temperature and seeing how the machine works. So I used this recipe because it looked basic. 

I dehydrated the kale for four hours at 135 degrees F. I thought it would take longer, but they were definitely crispy at that point, and I didn't want to risk burning them.

The verdict? Well, I didn't care for this particular recipe so much. The flavor was good, but the 1/4 cup of oil was way too much. If you've ever eaten super greasy potato chips, the kind you can't eat without a napkin on hand for wiping your fingers constantly, you know what I mean. It seems like a small amount of oil would allow the seasoning spices to stick to the kale.

The dehydrator was a piece of cake to use. Just plug it in, set the temp, and wait. Well, I did rotate the trays halfway through, as recommended in the instruction booklet. Next time I'll use a more appealing recipe, like Averie's. Or send me your favorite kale chip recipe, if you have one. No more paying $8 for a little tiny bag of kale chips at the store! I am happy about that.  I think I will get a lot of use out of my new "toy." Next, I want to make fruit roll-ups and flax crackers.

Because I'm a Foodbuzz Featured Publisher, I was sent a package of these new Newtons Fruit Thins cookies to sample. The flavor was Blueberry Brown Sugar.

They're not really cookies, more like digestive biscuits if you're familiar with those. They have a hard, crunchy texture, with little pieces of chewy dried blueberries here and there. Jackson and Olivia both loved them, and I thought they were tasty, too. They would make a good snack if you're wanting something that's a little sweet, but not super decadent or anything. They also make a great on-the-go snack for little ones because they are easy for small hands to hold, and they don't fall apart and leave crumbs everywhere. They're also fairly healthy - vegan, no high fructose corn syrup, whole grain, and the sugar content isn't terrible (8 grams per 3 cookie serving).

This week has flown by!  I don't have big plans for the weekend. Going for a swim sounds nice right now. I got the first disc of the HBO series Treme from Netflix, and I have a couple of new books on my Kindle -- The Help and If Sons, Then Heirs.  I've been reading so much more since I got my Kindle because I can use it on the treadmill. I always found it hard to hold a book and turn its pages while walking or running. With the Kindle, I can set it on the treadmill and just tap it lightly to turn the "page."  It's helping me to run more, since I don't get bored while running.  I ran 3x this past week and got up to 1.5 miles. Not awesome, but I haven't run in months, so I'm happy about it. I also went to yoga twice. I hope to keep up this combination of yoga and running. Doing one or the other doesn't quite meet all of my exercise goals. When I do both, I notice a difference in how I feel.

 Let me know if you have any other book recommendations that I should add to my queue. I always like to hear what others are reading/watching/listening to, and I know y'all have good taste. Have a great weekend!

Raw-rrrr

This morning, I spent some one-on-one time with Olivia. It's our weekend tradition.

First, we did a little thrift store shopping. At Treasure City we found a new toy.

I had a moment of deja vu when I saw it.  My brother had this toy when he was Jackson's age, almost 30 years ago! You drop a ball (or, if you are my son, you drop a cherry tomato you sneakily picked from your mama's garden) through the hole in the top, and watch it roll down the slanted rails. The kids were mesmerized, and you can't beat the price - $1!  I love thrift stores.

Next we checked out a little boutique called Blackbird that I had not visited before. I loved it. All of the clothing and accessories had a dark tone (not goth, just dark) and the decor was elegant and old-fashioned. Olivia adored the two tiny chihuahuas who were hanging out behind the counter.  She kept pointing at them and grinning and laughing. I bought a necklace.

I'm not afraid of spiders.  I hope this spider will be a good talisman and help me not be afraid of anything I am afraid of.

Kind of like this print I bought recently.

Lately I'm trying to be more brave about things that scare me. The other day I took Jackson and Olivia to a moms' club meetup in our neighborhood. Normally, I would be terrified to go to something like that, where everyone knows each other and I am the new person. Talk to strangers? Noooo! But it's important that Jackson and Olivia learn to play with other kids. And it wouldn't hurt for me to make some new friends here, either. As it turned out, the other moms were nice and the kids had a blast.  Sometimes the only way to find out whether or not you can do something is to do it.

Oh yeah...Olivia and I made one more stop on our morning of fun. Right next to Blackbird is a vegan food trailer called Counter Culture. It was too hot to eat outdoors, but I was (vegan cliche alert!) craving kale in a bad way. So I got a to-go order and brought it home.

Raw bruschetta with flax bread, cashew cheeze, tomato and basil, with a side of raw kale salad. Guys, I think this officially constitutes my first encounter with raw foods. And I gotta say, raw food, you are not too shabby! The bread was more like a cracker, crunchy and studded with tiny flax and sunflower seeds. It had a nutty flavor. It would be too dry to eat on its own, but it paired perfectly with the creamy cashew cheeze and juicy tomatoes.

Later in the day, Tony and I were having trouble getting the kids to nap, so we took them for a drive. I wasn't hungry for a big dinner due to the heat, so I popped into Daily Juice and got a smoothie made with banana, coconut, raw cacao, and spirulina. I didn't take a pic, but if you can picture a smoothie that is worth paying $7 for, you got it.

Also, I apparently didn't get enough of a kale or raw food fix earlier in the day, because I impulse bought these Rhythm Chips.

Cool ranch, yum! I've made kale chips before, using Averie's recipe. But since I made them in the oven, they didn't turn out nearly as dry and crispy as these dehydrated chips.

As we drove home, I commented, "I think I paid a lot for these chips." I didn't get a receipt, but when I figured up the cost of my smoothie and Tony's yerba mate, I was like, "Aw man, I think this little bag of chips cost $8!" I joked that I should get a dehydrator and make my own. Tony immediately said, "Yeah you should...then I can make beef jerky!"  I know, EW.  But also, YAY, because... I'm getting a dehydrator!

Do you have a dehydrator? How do you like it? What should I make first? I ordered a couple of those special screens so I can make fruit leather for the kids. I actually own an Ani Phyo cookbook that I've yet to crack open, so maybe I will start there.

It turns out I can't resist ending a post about raw food with a little ODB. Enjoy.