Adopt a Gluten Free Blogger

If you're out and about in the GF community, you probably are already aware of Sea @ Book of Yum's Adopt a Gluten Free Blogger Event this month. If not, it goes a bit like this:

blog “adoption” event where a blogger would “adopt” another blogger and try one of their recipes and blog both about the blogger and the recipe

I've been adopted by Natalie the Gluten Free Mommy. Thanks Natalie! :) If you haven't been to her blog, I highly recommend it. She has one of the prettiest, best organized, and, for lack of a better description, happiest blogs I've seen!

In that spirit, I adopt Christian (no, not my PhD adviser) @ Stephen's Recipes. He has a great coconut yogurt recipe which I want to make. I have been pondering more dairy replacements using coconut for the past few months, so his recipe is perfect. I'll be sure to keep everyone posted with the recipe (both his and mine) and whatever strangeness I whip up to go with the yogurt. Hey, start with coconut, a metabolism booster and superfood, add probiotics and where can you possibly go wrong?? (hopefully I won't find out :) )

Quick'n Tangy Broccoli Soup [Vegan] [Low Carb] [Low Fat]

1 lb. fresh broccoli (try to get stalks with as much floret head as possible. Less stem is better!)
2 c. low sodium organic vegetable broth (Pacific brand is gluten, dairy free, and vegan)
1 to 1 1/2 c. organic lite coconut milk
1 c. water
1/4" chunk fresh ginger root
7 cloves fresh garlic
5 t. nutritional yeast
2 T. extra virgin olive oil

Seasonings:
turmeric
freshly ground cumin
rosemary, to taste
sea salt and pepper
1/2 fresh lime, peeled

Optional:
2 T. organic hemp protein powder

Once all of your ingredients are in order, start by washing your fresh broccoli and chopping off a few of the florets to reserve for later. I used these florets at the end for garnish and texture.

Fill your Vita-Mix (or other blender) with the vegetable broth, coconut milk, water, garlic cloves, jalapeño, olive oil and seasonings. The beauty of easy blender soups like this is that you can just throw the veggies in whole; no chopping required. This is a time saver we can all appreciate. I put the garlic and pepper on the bottom of the blender and then pour over the liquids and add the seasonings. Add all the broccoli with the exception of the reserved garnish florets (do this depending on the strength of your blender if it can handle everything at once).

Cover the Vita-Mix and turn from low (1) quickly up to variable speed 10. After a moment, you can turn it all the way up to HIGH and blend for 6-8 minutes or until the soup is hot and steamy. If your blender is not powerful enough to heat the soup without itself overheating, puree the broccoli and soup ingredients in your blender and then warm the soup on low over the stovetop or in your microwave. This second method will take longer than the quick Vitamix method since the Vitamix is built to handle high heat and soup making (it is more of a power hog than your typical blender, however).

Once the soup is steaming, spoon in the nutritional yeast and then pour into serving bowl and drop in your reserved florets. You don't want to add the nutritional yeast until the very end since the hotter blending process can damage the B vitamins. Once completely blended, the steaming soup should not be too hot to add the nutritional yeast. This allows you to retain more of the active B vitamins while still getting that tangy, pungent flavor which the yeast imparts to the soup.

Nutritional yeast is a fantastic gluten free supplement which is easy to use and very flavorful. It is popular with many vegans as a potent source of many other B vitamins and vitamin B12 (if fortified with B12). The flakes are great for making dairy free cheese and cheese sauecsthat dissolve quickly. Nutritional yeast is gluten, dairy, and candida yeast free. It is a great and inexpensive supplement for everyone, but especially gluten free types who can't have brewers yeast.

For an optional protein and Omega fatty acid boost, stir in hemp protein powder at any time during preparation. If you are curious about hemp, read more about the benefits of hemp. Serve hot and enjoy.

Makes ~7 cups

Other uses for nutritional yeast:
The Cheesy Uncheese Sauce @ Karina's Kitchen (Gluten Free Goddess)

Quick Beet Potato Puree [Vegan]

1 lb. fresh raw beets OR 1 15 oz. can salt-free organic beets
3 small red potatoes
3 cloves fresh garlic
2 T. extra virgin olive oil
1/4 c. black olives

Seasonings:
rosemary (dried)
sea salt and pepper
turmeric
dried parsley

This is yet another delicious, quick, and healthy vegan side dish courtesy of the Vitamix (or your blender/food processor). This whole meal takes about 2 minutes from start to finish if you have the potatoes already cooked.

Wash off potatoes, cook if necessary. I had precooked potatoes on hand for ease of use when I come home late from work (like today). You can always resort to the quick paper towel-microwave method for cooking the potatoes, if absolutely necessary, but I recommend roasting a few on the weekend for later weekday consumption.

The actual "instructions" are a breeze: place the garlic, small potatoes (or halved medium cooked potatoes), raw washed beets, olive oil, and seasonings in the Vita-Mix. Turn from low (speed 1) to variable high (8-10) for approximately 1-1 1/2 minutes to blend while pushing the chunks to the bottom of the Vitamix with the damper. That's it! Blend to the consistency of your choice; I did a puree here which lends itself nicely for a topping for the rotisserie lamb we had tonight as a late celebration for Valentine's day. Garnish with parsley and enjoy either cold or warm. If you like it cold, it is better to eat beets this way in their raw form to retain folate and flavonoid content.

My other Vitamix recipes

Beets are a fantastic wintertime root vegetable packed with nutrients (as if the bright, intoxicating red color didn't signal that already!). The beautiful reddish-purple color of beets and their juice comes from pigment betacyanin which has an impressive number of health benefits. The beet pigment contains flavonoids called anthycyanins which seems to be responsible for much of the health-promoting effects of beets. World's Healthiest Foods gives a great summary on the health benefits of beets, but I'll summarize a few pointers:

• Beets are high in folate and manganese. Folate is an essential B vitamin of which many women and the elderly rarely consume sufficient amounts. Deficiency of folate can lead to birth defects in newborns and neuromuscular degeneration, to name a few conditions.
• They help protect against cancer, particularly colon cancer by encourgaing secretion of CD8 immune cells in the colon which help identify pre-cancerous cells.
• They help protect against heart disease by lowering cholesterol (while raising HDL) and lowering triglycerides.
• Help protect against birth defects (due to high folate content)
  

Of course, beets are not low glycemic index so take care to enjoy them in moderation while they are in season and fresh. The high sugar content of beets is what make them a traditional natural source of unrefined sugar. The sugar content is not outrageous, so beets can be safely consumed by diabetics in very small quantities and on rare occasion. Remember that adding a splash of extra olive oil to the beets will help lower the glycemic impact of the dish since high quality "good" monounsaturated olive oil fat lowers the insulin response in the body.

Again, try your fresh beets either raw in a salad or a puree, or only lightly steamed (save the juice, it contains much of the lost folate and Vitamin C!). The beneficial flavonoids and water soluble vitamins are lost in cooking and under heat. Folate is especially vulnerable to cooking. A disclaimer for anyone with kidney problems: the naturally occurring oxalates in beets can aggravate an oxalate imbalance in the body. Kidney and gallbladder problems allow high abnormal concentrations of oxalates to build up and crystallize, whereas a healthy body could process the oxalates found not only in beets, but also in many other veggies as well as in own own bodies.

Easy Roasted Chili Salsa [Vegan] [Low Carb] [Low Fat]

These past few months, Jon and I have been quite busy. From plodding through our degree programs and planning our wedding, finding a time to sit down, relax, and write to you has been a blessing seldom received. Rest assured, we've still been cooking and have plenty recipes stored away! Lately, we've focused on the often-requested, though rarely shared, weekend meals to last the week. Recipes for roasted-quinoa porridge, David's coconut guacamole, roasted tomato hummus, and cinnamon flax butter adorn our more recent list of recipes yet-to-be-posted. The Omega-3 packed cinnamon flax butter was delicious on our Sunrise Cinnamon Raisin Biscuits. We traded a batch of our roasted tomato hummus for two of Pete's Kombucha SCOBY's, for which Pete said:

That was very likely the best hummus I've ever tasted. I had to control myself to not eat the entire tub...

With those SCOBY's, we started brewing our own kombucha. [My addiction was becoming a tad too expensive .. :) ]

One thing is certain - when pressed for time, the Vita-Mix is perfect! Jon *promised* to buy us a new one when our warranty runs up, but if you're interested now, be sure to check out the new Vita-Mix-5200 with free shipping using the coupon code: 06-002697. It's pricey for a "blender", but we use it on a daily basis. In fact, we've already used it three times today! For instance, our Roasted Chili Salsa:

2 sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
1 jalapeño, roasted
1 small, fresh habanero
1 lb. fresh, roasted organic tomatoes OR 1 28 oz can fire roasted whole tomatoes with juice
5 cloves garlic
3-4 whole green chilies OR 1 can (drained)
1 t. organic raw apple cider vinegar
handful fresh cilantro
sea salt and pepper to taste
2 T. organic tomato paste
1/2 fresh lime
dash turmeric
dash dried red pepper flakes
dash dried parsley
pinch fresh whole cumin

Add all of the ingredients to the Vitamix or your blender. If you do not have any roasted peppers on hand, you can use fresh (or canned) ones, but those will be more pungent than roasted peppers. The roasting process changes some of the spicy heat to a smoky flavor as the pepper skins start to brown and convert to simpler sugars. Try to use fresh (then grill/roast your own) peppers rather than canned, since the water-soluble vitamin C in the peppers is lost in the canning process (especially if you drain your canned veggies!). Remember that old adage "fresh is better than frozen is better than canned?" Well, maybe it didn't quite go like that, but you get the idea.

As for the "instructions," just throw everything in your blender and whirl! I turned the Vitamix from low (1) to speed 10 in three 4-5 second intervals so that I could have chunky salsa. If you like your's more fluid, by all means, blend on.

Serve chilled. This is a great way to get fresh, raw vegetables in your diet. I've heard estimates that somewhere between half to 1/3 of your diet should come from raw food, but I think you should maximize whatever your body can handle. Raw food retains the vitamins, minerals, and especially enzymes which are destroyed by cooking. Personally, I eat salsa with a spoon, but even if you're just a chip and dip person, salsa is a great fat free condiment to replace soybean-oil mayo and commercial pasteurized dairy products (sour cream , cream cheese dip, etc). In case you're wondering, the high temperatures of pasteurization kill the bad bacteria alongside the good probiotics, so you're missing out on the healthy good bacteria. It's throwing out the baby with the bathwater, in my opinion. If you eat commercial dairy products (or pasteurized orange and other citrus juices), look for "live cultures" where at least some of the probiotics are added back to the food.

Oh, and remember that fat free isn't all its cracked up to be. Salsa is a great, healthy and raw low calorie food/condiment, but you shouldn't shun the fresh guacamole or extra virgin olive oil. Your body must have healthy fats in order to survive and repair itself, so remember to keep a balance! This goes great with some sundried tomato blue corn crips, flax crisps (coming soon), or good old fashioned cut up veggies. I also have a standing side of salsa with any fish or protein since it balances the flavors nicely. Hey, for about 3 minutes of your time, a blender, and a few produce ingredients, you can make your own specialty organic salsa. I don't know about you, but I certainly enjoy fun money savers like this! Most organic salsas are over $4/lb - this quick recipe makes about 7 c. (~3.5 lbs).

Yield: 7 c. salsa

Like this uber easy recipe? Check out my other Vitamix timer-saver recipes. And don't forget the guacamole, especially since avocados are in season!

Great gluten free blogger guac recipes (sorry if I missed yours, this is just the most recent batch):
Zesty Guacamole @ Gluten Free for Good
Joey's Kicked Up Rockin' Guac @ Karina's Kitchen (Gluten Free Goddess)

A Recipe for Disaster

As it is Super Tuesday, I've a special recipe I'd like to share courtesy of a friend. It's not very appetizing. In fact, the thought alone will probably upset your stomach. Nonetheless, it's this very recipe that we've been spoon fed.

First, pour a trillion dollars of military spending in a pot. Next, add a heaping tablespoon of debt to China. Finally, mix in a half a cup of federal reserve notes printed from thin air. Bake in warmonger propaganda and what do you get? Inflation, a falling dollar, and a collapsing economy!

If you find this recipe distasteful, then educate yourself and vote! You can make a difference.

Coconut Lime Seared Salmon [Paleo] [Low Carb]

At a junction between the Superbowl and Super Tuesday, I thought I'd send you a delicious salmon recipe of ours and a little reminder: Don't forget to vote tomorrow (Feb 5th)! Before heading out to vote, please consider the once-in-a-lifetime candidate for president, Ron Paul. Thanks - enjoy :)

4 fillets fresh or frozen (defrosted) wild caught Alaskan salmon with skin
lemon juice
squeeze lime juice
sea salt and pepper
4 T. organic virgin coconut oil (or olive oil) for frying

Seasonings:
dried
sprinkle dill and lemon seasoning

Coconut Lime Sauce:
1 can organic coconut milk
1/3 c. lime juice
peel of fresh lime, grated for zest
handful organic no-sulfur shredded coconut (extra for garnish)
slices of fresh lime, garnish

Prepare your coconut sauce by combining and stirring all the lime sauce ingredients in a large bowl. Once mixed, poor roughly two-thirds of the glaze and salmon in a leak proof bag and let marinate for at least 30 minutes for the flavors to meld.

Coat your grill with olive oil (spray or otherwise). Grill the salmon for 2-3 minutes per side - we like our salmon rare-medium, depending on freshness. Once the salmon is done to your liking, remove it from the grill and drizzle over the remaining coconut lime sauce. Sprinkle the coconut flakes on top and serve hot with a wedge of fresh lime.

As I mentioned previously in my Balsamic Molasses Grilled Salmon, eat the skin of the salmon to ingest the good Omega 3 fats. I know that sounds repulsive to some (my parents), but the Omega 3's are found right under the skin. In his nutritional bible Fats that Heal, Fats that Kill, Udo Erasmus cites the areas right underneath the skin, around the gills, fins, and belly as the sites of Omega 3 fish oil stores (pg. 263 in case you're curious). The good Omega 3 fats are a class of essential fats which our bodies cannot synthesize on their own, so they must come from our diet. The American/Western diet is lacking in quality fat (fish oils, coconut oil, hemp, flax, and olive oil), consumes far too much processed food, and has a highly distorted Omega3:Omega 6 ratio. This imbalance heightens the necessity for one to supplement his/her diet with more Omega 3 fats. Don't worry, the good fat is metabolized quickly and efficiently in the body, so it is not stored; you will not "get fat" by eating the correct fats. Indeed, the opposite is true when reasonable consumption of quality fats are included in the diet. Besides, salmon is virtually adored by everyone (vegan excluded, of course :) ), so dig in!