Beef Short Ribs and Grits
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup of ginger sauce (I used Makoto.)
- 2 to 3 pounds of beef short ribs
- Grits
- Tempura batter, commercial
- Green Tomatoes, sliced
- Cooking oil for deep frying tomatoes
- Any kind of horseradish sauce
Optional
Directions
- Place ribs and sauce in slow cooker and cook for five to six hours on lowest cooking setting. However, adjust cooking setting and time based on recommendations of product.
- Cook grits based on instructions.
- Make tempura batter according to instructions.
- Dip sliced tomatoes in batter and fry until crisp and golden.
Slow Cooker Three-Bean Chili and Cornbread
Cook Time |
|
|---|---|
| Slow cook on lowest temperature (not warm) for 6 to 8 hours. | |
Ingredients |
|
| 4 to 5 cups of vegetable stock | 1/2 cup of dried black beans |
| 1/2 cup dried green lentils | 1/2 cup of dried red beans |
| 2 to 3 tablespoons of cooking oil | 2 cloves garlic, minced |
| 1 sweet onion, diced | 1 long-stalk carrot, chopped |
| 1 green bell pepper, chopped | 1 red bell pepper, chopped |
| 3 stalk celery, chopped | 1 chili pepper, seeded and minced |
| one 14.5-ounce can diced tomato | 1 teaspoon salt |
| 1 tablespooon ground cumin | 1 cup of frozen sweet corn |
Directions |
|
|
Add 3 cups of stock and beans to slow cooker. In large pan, heat the oil over medium-high heat and add vegetables (except tomatoes and corn). Cook until soft. Add cooked vegetables, tomatoes, cumin, and salt to slow cooker. Add frozen corn to slow cooker 2 hours before beans are finished cooking. |
|
Tip
Add stock as needed to keep beans covered. For best flavor, use homemade vegetable stock.
Vegan Cornbread
Recipe from Food.com.
Quinoa Squash and Carrot Stew
I love this stew, but not quinoa—too grainy tasting for my palette.
Ingredients |
|
|---|---|
| Quinoa with Moroccan Winter Squash and Carrot Stew
Epicurious.com |
|
Directions |
|
| Recipe
Note: Took me 90 minutes to make this. |
|
White Sauce Sourdough Pizza with Artichoke Hearts and Portobello Mushrooms
Vegan
I wish I could tell you that I measured my ingredients, but I didn’t. I think home-baked pizzas should be tailored to your liking.
Ingredients |
|
|---|---|
| pizza dough | two tablespoons of olive oil |
| portobello mushrooms, sliced | onions, sliced |
| Roasted Garlic & Peppercorn Marinade | canned “brine” artichoke hearts |
Directions |
|
| Preheat oven to 425°. Heat oil in pan and sauté onions for about 5 min and then add mushroom; cook until brown in color. Remove onions and mushrooms from pan and allow to cool for a few minutes. Roll out pizza dough and top with mushrooms, onions, artichoke hearts, and garlic sauce. Place pizza in oven and cook for 12 minutes or until pizza crust is brown. | |
Film on Feeding America | A Place at the Table
Film on Feeding America | A Place at the Table
Did you know one in two children in America will need food assistance?
A Place at the Table is available in theaters and on iTunes March 1st.
Musings on my Impermanent Vegan Diet
maple squash, yams, brown rice salad, pasta salad, roasted potatoes
I want to be clear: I do like to eat burgers, fish, and chicken. And I am not professing to be a vegan moving forward. This is a break from eating foods with any animal products.
Withdrawal from eating meat feels like an addiction that I am trying to overcome. And my temporary vegan diet feels like I’ve found religion, not trying to “backslide.” It’s not calorie counting, it’s ingredient monitoring.
The first few days were rough for my family members. My husband and son were cranky. Mostly because I started the family on our new diet without grocery shopping, so there weren’t many options for food. My husband even went so far as to announce a list of meats (after smelling neighborhood BBQ) that he can not wait to eat after this diet is over. Great!
If you are thinking about transitioning to an animal-free diet, here are a few suggestions:
- Do your research on vegan foods. Learn how to cook vegan meals based on cuisine you like. Get a few cookbooks. I downloaded Vegan Soul Kitchen cookbook to my Nook®—so portable.
- Read the label. Does it say vegan? Day One: I messed up. Ate food that had cheese. Not animal free.
- Eat out at vegetarian- and vegan-friendly restaurants. Transitioning into a vegan diet is not easy. It’s not a bland diet at all. Vegan meals are incredibly tasty and discovering meal pairings is a trial. For the last several months, I ate vegan by lunching occasionally with a vegan friend. This helped me develop a palate for vegan meals.
- Homemade vegetable stock is a must. Use it to boost flavor in brown rice, beans, and lentils.
- Create meals without animal products, of course, that you already like to eat.
- Know your go to snack. I made a two-bean salsa that I enjoy with chips.
- Know why you are on a vegan diet. Don’t set yourself up for failure if it’s only temporary. You may want to do it for health reasons.
- Stay away from foodie traps: Whole Foods and all culinary centers, until you are strong enough to resist salivating at the sight and smell of animal products.
Vegetarian, but not vegan: Parmesan-crusted eggplant, brown rice, curry rice with currants, brown rice, spanakopita, Korean bbq tofu, roasted vegetables
carrots, garlic, onions, shitake mushroom
Prepped vegan pizza: mushrooms, tomatoes, basil, onions, red bell pepper, garlic
black beans, red beans, white and yellow sweet corn, tomatoes, red onion, garlic, lime
Are you a Soul Food Junkie?
For Black History Month, the Honolulu Museum of Art is spotlighting a collection of inspiring African American independent films. The festival runs February 16-23, 2013 and will feature speakers, special guests and performers.
Film Soul Food Junkies highlights disparities in quality of food in some black epicenters. In his film, filmaker Byron Hurt considers the African American soul food diet and how our penchant for this food may be harming us.
There are food justice movements across America. This is just one lens and perspective of how segments of the food industry target vulnerable communities with low-quality foods: foods that are sugary, fatty, and seriously processed!
“Soul Food Junkies” 2012 Trailer from Byron Hurt on Vimeo.
I’m really looking forward to seeing this film next weekend. I don’t view “soul food” as bad food; however, when I saw that they were grouping junk food such as cheep flavored drinks into the category I got more curious.
Another layer of interest, the differences between growing up urban and growing up “country” (colloquialism for living in a rural environment).
My “soul food diet” growing up did not consist of mostly processed foods. My parents and extended family cooked a lot of our food with fresh ingredients and from scratch. Many of my family members including my grandmother and MIL grew their own food, including backyard chickens. Very typical for Southern parts. Not the same for someone who grew up in the city and had to rely on producers.
However, life is different now. I’m afraid to say that a lot of that has been lost.