My oh-crap-we-need-to-feed-people go to salad

 My oh-crap-we-need-to-feed-people go to salad

• 2 cans different beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 can whole kernel corn, rinsed and drained
• Salt and Pepper
• Olive Oil Vinaigrette 

1. Mix and serve

Planned Version of the Same Salad 

• 1 can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 can garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained 
• 1 can whole kernel corn, rinsed and drained 
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 3/4 cup olive oil 
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• 1 cucumber, thinly sliced 
• 1 red onion, thinly sliced 
• 1 cup fresh basil, roughly chopped. 

1. Add the solid ingredients in a large bowl, gently toss to mix. 
2. In a separate container mix the vinegar, oil, and herbs. 
3. Mix thoroughly and then pour over the salad, toss gently to mix.  

I'd love to hear how this turns out for you!

Gluten Free Chocolate Quinoa Cake

Originally posted 7 July 2021 

Definitely needing a distraction from the 791 new Covid cases today. Instead of what's happening in Fiji, let me tell you about this flourless chocolate cake we made with quinoa. Baking is a dark art, while I don't mess with the recipes the way I do with the stove top stuff, I did add a teaspoon of instant coffee to this. It came out oh so good, and I think I need to make it again soon. 

Prep: 15 mins Cook: 40 mins Additional: 30 mins Total: 1 hr 25 mins

Ingredients

• 2 cups cold cooked quinoa (1 cup quinoa, 2 cups water)
• ¾ cup melted butter
• 4 eggs
• ⅓ cup milk
• 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup cocoa powder
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup chocolate chips
• ½ cup chopped pecans (Optional)
• 1 tsp instant coffee 

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a rectangular 9x13 cake pan.
2. Blend quinoa, butter, eggs, milk, and vanilla extract together in a blender until smooth. Seriously, blend that quinoa until it's smooth as can be. 
3. Combine dry ingredients sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl. Stir blended quinoa mixture into sugar mixture until batter is well combined. Fold chocolate chips and pecans into batter; pour into the prepared pan.
4. Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes. Cool cake on a wire rack.

One Pot Chickpea and Pumpkin Pasta

Another vegan recipe until the end where we topped it with cheese. Dessert was banana pudding from Judy's 4th of July care package, thank you Judy for sharing this taste of home with us 

One Pot Chickpea and Pumpkin Pasta

Prep Time: 15 mins Cook Time: 30 mins Total Time: 45 mins Yield: 6

INGREDIENTS

• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 1 cup dried chickpeas (soak the night before)
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 3 garlic cloves, sliced
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 1/2 tsp sweet paprika
• 3/4 tsp ground turmeric
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 chili pepper, finely diced
• 1/8 tsp ground black pepper
• Stock powder 
• 4 1/2 cups of water
• 2 cups pumpkin, diced
• Salt to taste
• 250g pasta 
• 4 cups packed baby spinach
• Fresh parsley for garnish (optional)
• Parmesan cheese for garnish (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Toast spices, saute onions, bell pepper, and garlic in olive oil.
2. Add the tomatoes, water, and stock powder and pressure cook chickpeas for 20 minutes.
3. Bring pressure down, add salt, pasta and pumpkin, water if needed, boil for 10 minutes or until the pasta is al dente and the pumpkin is soft.
4. Remove from heat and add the spinach, toss to wilt the greens and serve with a garnish of parsley and parmesan cheese.

Amy's Peanut Soup Recipe

Monday's vegan dinner hit the spot. It's adapted from a recipe my friend Amy sent me. Most of the adaptations are marked with *s, but I might have missed marking some of the changes I made between her original and my bastardized version. We followed it with starfruit bread from Mango Hill farm that was packed full of butter and eggs and yogurt and decidedly not vegan. 

Amy's Peanut Soup Recipe

45 minutes plus prep

INGREDIENTS

• 1 red bell pepper (capsicum) chopped (125 grams)
• 2 yellow onions, finely chopped
• pinch of salt
• neutral oil
• 2 Tablespoons fresh ginger, grated
• 1 Tablespoon crushed garlic
• 1 Tablespoon cumin/jeera
• 1/4 tsp turmeric
• *250 g mushrooms, roughly diced
• *Eggplant, roughly diced
• 1/2 pumpkin peeled & cubed
• 1 can diced tomatoes 
• 4 cups hot water
• 4 tsp stock powder
• 3/4 cup peanut butter, any variety (180g) 
• 500 g greens (seijan, bhaji, moringa, malabar)
• Chilies, jalapenos, sambal or sriracha sauce to your heat preference
• *1/3 cup Cilantro
• *2 Tbsp lemon juice
• * Cooked rice or quinoa for serving

DIRECTIONS

1. Heat oil in the bottom of a soup pot and sauté the red bell pepper (capsicum) and onions with a pinch of salt until the onions are translucent, about 5 minutes. 
2. Add ginger, garlic and cumin/jeera, eggplant and mushrooms and sauté for another 2 minutes or until fragrant. 
3. Add pumpkin cubes and stir to combine, then add the tomatoes with their juices and the stock powder + water. Simmer gently until the pumpkin pieces are tender, about 15 minutes. 
4. Place peanut butter in a medium bowl, add one or two ladles of hot soup and stir until emulsified, then pour the mixture back into the soup. Reduce heat to low and stir gently to combine.
5. Toss in the greens and the chilies. Cook on low to wilt the greens, maybe 5 minutes, stir frequently to prevent scorching. 
6. Turn off heat and stir in the lemon juice, garnish with cilantro and chopped peanuts. Serve over rice or quinoa. 

Serves 4 to 6.

Serving suggestions - over rice, with sourdough bread

Eggy Risotto

My mushroom needs are usually well met between Majestic Mushrooms in Pacific Harbor and Mama's Mushrooms in Ba, but I hit a dry spot for a long while. Thankfully I got topped up in June, was able to use those amazing mushrooms in this dish a little while back

Eggy Mushroom Risotto

Ingredients

• 4 cups hot stock (I use boiling water from the kettle and bouillon powder)
• *I'm able to cook in nonstick pans, so I use way less oil/butter than this, but I'm not sure how much I use
• 5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 onions, finely diced
• 3 cloves garlic, finely fixed
• *1 cup chopped bell pepper 
• *2 cups mushrooms, roughly chopped
• Red pepper flakes (I used chili peppers instead)
• Leaves from 5 to 6 sprigs of thyme (didn't use)
• *chopped basil, parsley
• salt
• 1 cup risotto rice
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (or nutritional yeast if you've got it)
• 3 large egg yolks, lightly beaten (I used 4, shh!)

add in ideas for risottos in general: beans, mushrooms, herbs, bacon, sliced meats, cook an egg on top at the end, add egg yolks at end, cheese, tomato, corn, basil, bell peppers, spinach, cooked pumpkin, eggplant

Directions

1. Heat the stock in a large pot with an 8-ounce ladle. (Turn the kettle on)
2. In a 4-quart pot, heat 3 tablespoons of the oil and 1 tablespoon of the butter (I didn't use anywhere near this much oil) over medium heat. Add the capsicum and onion and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about a minute.  Add garlic, chilis to taste, mushrooms, and a pinch of salt, turn the heat to medium-low and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is very tender, about 5 minutes. Take the pan off the heat if the garlic starts to brown. Remove veggies to a bowl and keep warm. 
3. Add the rice and 1 tablespoon of the oil to the pot, stirring for about 3 minutes to toast the rice lightly. Increase the heat to medium, add the wine and cook until most of the wine is gone but the bottom of the pot is not dry. Add the cooked veggies back to the pot. Add sufficient bouillon powder for four cups of liquid, then add 1 cup of the hot water from the kettle and cook, stirring, until the liquid has been absorbed and evaporated. Add another cup water and increase the heat so that there is a fair amount of bubbles on the surface and cook until the liquid is once again absorbed (this agitation helps release the starch as the rice cooks). Add the remaining 1 tablespoon oil and another cup or so of water and continue to cook, stirring, until the liquid is absorbed into the rice, adding more water as needed and stirring. To see if it's time to add more liquid, drag the spoon through the rice; if the liquid doesn't immediately fill in the space, it's time to add more. Continue to cook, adding liquid as necessary, until the risotto looks creamy but the rice is still al dente, about 18 minutes. If using fresh chopped spinach, add at this point and stir in just until wilted.
4. Take the risotto off the heat. Add the remaining 3 tablespoons butter and the cheese and stir well. At this point, you can add the egg yolks and stir them in until well combined. Serve immediately.

adapted from https://www.foodnetwork.com/fnk/recipes/risotto-with-egg-and-parmigiano-8041871

Basic Gluten Free Quickbread recipe

I'm going to do something different for a little while. We're eating a lot more eggs these days, I'm also cooking more gluten free meals. Instead of a run down of my day I'm going to post some of the new to me recipes.

Ever since I met Dr. Pate my kitchen mantra for meals has been a grain, a green, a bean (or protein), so some of these will skew plant based other than the eggs.

So here's what we had today, it's based off a recipe my friend Crystal gave me.

Basic Gluten Free Quickbread recipe

350F/175C Cook for one hour 2 - 9" loaf pan

INGREDIENTS

1 cup fruit/vegetables (ripe bananas, cooked pumpkin, shredded carrot, etc) measure by volume

4 eggs, lightly beaten

1/3 cup neutral oil

1/3 cup yogurt

2/3 cup besan flour

2/3 cup finely ground corn meal

2/3 cup cassava starch

2/3 cup sugar

2.5 tsp baking powder

1.5 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 cup add ins (nuts, cranberries, chocolate chips, seeds, raisins, etc)

Spice mixes - choose one, about 1/4 cup total

Pumpkin pie - 2 tsp vanilla, 2 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg, 1/2 tsp ginger

Chai spice - cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, ginger

Apple pie spice - vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, allspice

DIRECTIONS

1) Preheat oven to 350F/175C

2) combine dry ingredients

3) separately mix wet ingredients well, add the combined dry ingredients, gently fold together just until moist, turn into oiled and floured (or paper lined) loaf pans. Cook for 60 minutes. Let rest for 15 minutes before serving.

A Month of Groceries, 7 Days of Water

 It's Cyclone Season again! I've already followed everything on my cyclone prep list so now I'm trying to settle the anxiety moths in my stomach by writing. Tropical Cyclone Yasa is headed straight to Fiji with landfall expected in about 36 hours. 

So, the basics. This is mostly a recap of my tried and tested Cyclone Prep List  with a few additional items and explanations

Things to do: 

• Establish a communication plan with family and friends. For example, if you are conserving power, you may want to post updates once a day at 10 AM, or twice a day on the 8s, and so on. Have an agreed on platform and identify alternate contacts in case you can't be reached. Make sure your emergency contact list is up to date and in the hands of those who may need it. 
• Charge everything, phones, computers, ereaders, power banks, portable radios. 
• Fill the fridge and freezer with as many filled and burped water bottles as you have space for. This helps keep food cold in case of a power outtage and is an emergency water supply. These are good to always keep in the freezer/fridge as they help your appliances run more efficiently; if you always have frozen water bottles in the freezer they're easy to throw in a cooler bag if you're heading out for the day.  
• Check drains/gutters to make sure they're clear
• Cut back any trees, branches that could be a danger in high winds 
• Have cash on hand in case of emergency expenses

Water

• Bottled water – 4 litres per person per day 
• Fill up bathtubs, bottles, buckets and other available items with tap water for use bathing and flushing
• Have a way to boil water before use 

Food

• 7 day supply of non-perishable food items

Non-Food Items

• First aid kit and medications and copies of medication prescriptions
• Gas, cooking utensils, can opener, stovetop teakettle, coffee maker, paper napkins and disposable utensils 
• Matches or lighters. candles, torch and spare batteries
• Soap and personal hygiene supplies (toilet paper, sanitary products, tissues etc)
• Garbage bags and cleaning supplies (including bleach), cleaning brushes, buckets
• Blankets or sleeping bags
• Card games, board games, and other activities 

Communications Equipment

• Cellphone
• Radio (preferably wind up)
• Spare batteries for all communications equipment, fully charged at all times (wherever possible)

But what do you do if you're going to be in a situation for a longer than a week? Here's what I've got for food and other supplies for a month. Water and electricity are out of my capacity right now, but they're first on the list as soon as I can buy land. All of this is for one person, and assume that you have a mostly plant based diet. 

• grains - 30 lbs, some items in this category are pasta, rice, barley, quinoa, flour, oatmeal, ramen noodles, popcorn, crackers, bread (frozen) 
• beans and legumes - 7.5 lbs including chickpeas, kidney, pinto, lentils, peanut butter, tahini
• milk/dairy - 6.25 lbs powdered milk, UHT milk, cheeses 
• meat - 2 lbs including eggs canned tuna, mutton, bacon 
• fats/oils - 2 lbs, we use mostly olive oil, vegetable oil, and butter, but there's also ghee, peanut oil 
• sugars - 5 lbs, your list might include sugar, honey, hard candy. I also use dried fruits in place of sugar, like adding soaked dates and raisins to my oatmeal.  
• fruits/veggies - 7.5 lbs, including potatoes, onions, canned tomatoes, canned fruits, pasta sauce, raisins, cranberries, dried pineapple, dried mango, dried apricots 
• seasonings absolutely essential! This is your garlic, ginger, dried herbs and spices, bouillon cubes, salt, pepper, spice mixes, white vinegar, balsamic vinegar, apple cider vinegar, rice vinegar, cinnamon, vanilla, nutritional yeast 
• beverages - these make it so much easier to start and end the day. Definitely have some nice beverages on your emergency packing list, like coffee, tea, cocoa powder, and other beverage mixes
• leavening agents turn your ingredients into food. These are baking powder, yeast, baking soda  
• hygiene - lay in extra soap, shampoo, toothpaste, toilet paper, tampons/pads 
• medications - a partial list might include panadol, soov, nurofen, topical antibioitic ointment, topical antifungal 
• household - laundry detergent, bleach, fabuloso, portable radio, lighter, mosquito coils, can opener, paper towels or cleaning rags, candle holders
• junk food - these days are stressful. A bag of chips can be just the thing at lunchtime. Definitely have the non-perishable things you crave on your list. 

I started writing this before the storm got here, after many interruptions I'm finally posting it. Tropical Cyclone Yasa is here, we'll see how this list does.