Rice Noodles and Vegetables with Sweet Soy Sauce

Hearty Spice Muffins

Not the best photo. These taste much better than they look. Brown foods aren't very photogenic.

Remember those spice cakes made with tomato soup from back in the day? Here's a muffin that also calls for a can of tomato soup. No, it doesn't taste like tomato. It's rich and spicy, and it will make you think harvest time. Add chopped nuts, if desired.


Kari's Hearty Spice Muffins (makes 12 muffins)


Egg substitute for 2 eggs:
2 tbsp flax meal
6 tbsp water

Dry ingredients:
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1 cup unbleached flour
1/4 cup oats
1 cup turbinado sugar
4 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp fresh grated nutmeg

Wet ingredients:
1 can condensed tomato soup
4 ounce unsweetened applesauce (1 individual size container)
1/4 cup orange juice (or apple juice)
2 tbsp molasses
1/2 tsp vanilla

Add-ins:
1/2 cup raisins, soaked to plump in hot water if desired (or other dried fruit)
1/2 cup chopped nuts, optional

Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray muffin tin with cooking spray.

In small bowl, combine flax meal and water; set aside.

In large mixing bowl, combine dry ingredients: whole wheat flour, unbleached flour, oats, turbinado sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg.

In small bowl, combine wet ingredients: flax mixture, tomato soup, applesauce, orange juice, molasses, and vanilla.

Stir wet mixture into dry mixture, then stir in raisins.

Divide batter between 12 muffins cups. Bake for 30 minutes.


Note: These are fairly sweet. If you prefer less sweetness, you might try reducing the sugar by a few tablespoons. Maybe add a little more flax meal to replace it, so the batter isn't too runny. The raisins add sweetness, too, as does the fruit juice. The juice could be replaced with water or soy milk or nut milk or coffee or whatever liquid you like.

If you experiment with alternate ingredients or pans or whatever, feel free to post your results in the comments so others (is that an echo?) may benefit from your courage. ::grin::

Indian-Spiced Potatoes and Cauliflower

Last night's dinner: Indian-Spiced Potatoes and Cauliflower, gai lan sauteed with garlic, apple chutney, and paratha. The chutney recipe can be found here. It is delicious!


Kari's Indian-Spiced Potatoes and Cauliflower

1/2 Tbsp oil
1 tsp Indian seed mixture*
1 medium onion, diced
4 medium potatoes, peeled and cut in bite-size pieces
2 cups cauliflower florets, cut bite-size pieces
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/4 tsp Indian red chilli powder (or you could use cayenne)
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup canned diced tomato (or you could use fresh)
1 cup water
1 cup frozen peas
1/2 tsp garam masala
cilantro garnish, optional

Place potatoes and cauliflower in a microwave safe bowl; add about 1/4 cup water, cover, and cook 5 minutes.

In large heavy pan, heat oil over medium heat. Add Indian seed mixture. When seeds pop, add onion. Saute over medium heat 3-4 minutes, til onion begins to brown. Add garlic, cumin, coriander, turmeric, chilli powder, and salt. Cook and stir to toast spice, then stir in tomatoes. Cook 2 minutes, then stir in water. Bring to boil. Add potatoes and cauliflower. Reduce heat, cover, and cook 15 to 20 minutes until vegetables are very tender and sauce thickens. Add peas and cook a couple minutes until peas are hot. Before serving, stir in garam masala. Adjust seasoning to taste. Garnish with chopped cilantro if desired. Serve with your favorite flatbread, sauteed greens, and chutney.

*Indian seed mixture appears in Indian Vegetarian Cooking at Your House by Sunetra Humbad and Amy Schafer Boger, M.D.. It consists of one part each sesame and cumin seeds, and two parts black mustard seed.

Note: This is kid-friendly, not overly-spicy. For a hotter spice, add more chilli or cayenne, or use Sriracha chili sauce at the table.

What can you buy for $57 at Lam's in Phoenix?

bag gai lan
bag baby bok choy
celery
3 bunches spinach
3 Japanese eggplant
large mango
2 cauliflower
bunch cilantro
bunch parsley
bananas
10# potatoes
2 bunches scallions
4 limes
3 pickling cukes
2 crowns broccoli
shitake mushrooms
oyster mushrooms
large pkg okra
Thai chiles
fresh thyme
curry leaves
snow peas
Thai basil
2 ears sweet corn
bag bean sprouts
bag green beans
bag shallots
4 heads garlic
12 oz pkg mung beans
3 small pkg fresh udon
fresh tofu
2 firm tofu
Japanese red pepper
1 can mock pork
1 can hot and sour soup
1 can bamboo shoots
1 can baby corn
3 cans coconut milk
jar chile-garlic sauce
pkg shrimp/veggie potstickers (for the husband)
pkg chocolate wafer cookies

Coconut Mung Beans with Sweet Potato

1 cup split peeled mung beans, rinsed*
1/2 T oil
2 pinches black mustard seeds
1/2 medium onion, diced
1 green bell pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp minced ginger
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp tumeric
1 Tbsp curry powder
1/2-1 tsp salt (to taste)
1 can Rotel diced tomatoes with chiles
1 can coconut milk
1 medium sweet potato, peeled and diced

Cook the mung beans in saucepan with 3 or 4 cups water until beans are very tender, approximately 15-20 minutes. Mung beans cook quickly. Don't let them burn.

Microwave sweet potato in a bowl with a couple tablespoons of water about 4 minutes, until tender. Set aside.

Meanwhile, heat oil in large nonstick skillet. Add mustard seeds. When they pop, add onion, and saute a few minutes until soft. Add bell pepper, garlic, and ginger. Saute about 5 minutes. Add cumin, coriander, tumeric, and curry powder. Cook and stir a minute to toast spices. Add tomatoes; cook and stir a couple minutes. Stir in coconut milk. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and add mung beans, stirring to combine. Add cooked sweet potato and salt. Cover and simmer 20 minutes. If needed, stir in water to thin.

Serve over rice. On the side, I served summer squash sauteed with garlic.

You could also eat this as soup. This is mild and has excellent flavor. For additional heat you could add Indian chili powder, red pepper flakes or cayenne with the spices, or add fresh hot chiles with the bell pepper. Or you could season with pepper sauce at the table.

*I've made a similar dish using red lentils instead of mung beans.

One potato, two potato, three potato, four

I don't know who David Kramer is, but he's wrong about potatoes. In a footnote on one of his posts on government dietary advice, he writes:

"¹Potatoes are very fattening. How does this environmentally-"correct" food recommendation jibe with the Brits' former study claiming that obesity causes global warming?"


Potatoes are fattening? I think not. Perhaps he should do a little more research. He can start with Dr. McDougall's March 2009 newsletter where Dr. McDougall writes:

"Most people are completely backwards about the diet that results in health and an attractive appearance. They learn, "Don’t eat starches, because rice turns to sugar, which turns to fat, making you gain weight." If this mantra were true then there would be an epidemic of obesity among the 1.73 billion Asians living on rice-based diets. Confirming this truth, after moving west and replacing their starch with "high-protein" foods, then people from Japan and the Philippines would become trimmer and healthier looking. Is that what you see? "Potatoes are fattening." If true, then why during the 2000 McDougall Adventure trip to Peru, a country where common potatoes are the staple food, were the residents so trim and strong looking? We did see a few overweight people on this trip. The "chubby ones" were the waiters and chefs serving tourists their favorite meat and cheese dishes, and obviously sampling the menu.

"Let’s look together at a globe of the Earth and identify the populations of people who look the youngest, healthiest, and trimmest. Those living in Japan, China, Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines stand out. Their diet is mostly rice with some vegetables. In rural Mexico we will find beautiful people eating corn, beans, and squash. No one is overweight or on a diet there. The men, women and children of central New Guinea are nourished almost entirely by sweet potatoes. These people have no need for Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig. Worldwide, populations with the highest consumption of starch are the trimmest and fittest.1 Learn about the health of these trim people and you will discover that they also have extremely low rates of diabetes, arthritis, gallbladder disease, constipation, indigestion, multiple sclerosis, heart disease, and cancers of the breast, prostate, and colon."


Sure, many people don't want to hear unsolicited dietary advice, especially from government which rarely gets anything right, but that doesn't mean the dietary advice is necessarily wrong. Besides, lamb tastes like wet dog smells. Blech.

Cartoon Time