The Healthy Cooking Coach

The Everlasting Salad

I know the weather’s getting chillier and some of you may be swearing off salads in favor of more cooked vegetables. Still many of you will probably keep consuming salads throughout the winter, paired with warm soups, stews, roasts, or grilled meats. I didn’t want to miss the chance to share a cool salad recipe and time-saving technique with you.

Photo right by Chef Rachel ©2009

Healthy eating just got easier
Are you looking for a way to make it more convenient to get vegetables into your daily diet? Do you rush out the door in the morning with a pack lunch that’s missing vegetables? Do you come home at night and want to get dinner on the table more quickly? Great leftovers are the key to packing great lunches and assembling low maintenance dinners.

Cook ahead
If you’ve read my cookbook, The Garden of Eating, or attended my cooking classes you know I encourage people to Shop Ahead, Chop Ahead, and Cook Ahead. I’m a fan of the “cook once, eat twice,” or “cook once, eat thrice,” motto. I almost always cook with two or three meals or days in mind. I cook extra portions of fish, poultry, or meat, hard boil extra eggs. I roast, bake, grill, or blanch vegetables and make soups with multiple meals in mind. Those planned-overs made it easy for me to assemble breakfasts, lunches, and dinners in a dash.

What about green salads? Have you ever made a salad, dressed it, then stashed the leftovers in a  covered bowl and found it wilted, watery, and unappealing the next day? They don’t always work, particularly if your dressing contains salt or vinegar.

Salad keeping secret
Would you like to make a green salad today and have it look and taste just as delicious tomorrow and the next day? This summer I discovered a way to make green salads that last for several days and still look and taste great. Actually, my dear friend, Don, hit on this idea with no prompting from me. He shared his secret with me and let me taste some of the salads he concocted using his new technique.

Olives and raisins
If you’ve never added olives and raisins to the same salad try it. It’s really delicious. You can experiment with different dried fruits, different salad veggies, and combinations of ingredients. If you add grated carrots, try using the super tiny hole on a standard box grater for an entirely different effect (more tender bites of carrot that spread throughout the salad). You can add a sprinkle of toasted nuts or seeds if you like and/or some crumbled goat or sheep milk feta if you tolerate dairy products.

Spice it up
If you want to spice up the salad at the table, you can peel, finely grate and squeeze fresh ginger juice or add a few drops of hot sauce to your portion of salad (not the whole salad) at the table.

So don’t be shy, give the recipe and variations a try and let me know what you think.

The Everlasting Salad 

Prep: 15 minutes/ Cooking: 0 /   Yield: 4 to 6 servings                                                          

I don’t consider a bowl of lettuce or baby greens a salad. It’s a start, but it needs color and texture. My friend Don shared this cool tip with me for making a green salad that will keep well for three days in the fridge. It’s super convenient and easy to make and goes with just about any kind of meat, fish, poultry, or bean dish. I like to add a root, tuber, squash, or fruit dish to the meal as well.

The trick is to coat the veggies with olive or avocado oil and to avoid adding vinegar, lemon juice, or salt to the salad. You can salt and other things at the table if you like. All measurements are approximate. You can vary the type of lettuce (romaine’s the most durable) and the colorful mix-ins. I like to start with a 4 quart bowl. I figure about 2 cups of salad per person per meal/day.

Ingredients:
6 to 8 cups lettuce, washed well, spun dry, and cut or torn into bite-size pieces:
    romaine, red leaf, green leaf, oak leaf, Boston, buttercrunch, bib, lollo rosso lettuce, or some combination of 2 or more mild lettuces
1/2 small or medium red onion or 1 bunch scallions (green onions), sliced paper thin
1/2 cup red radish, halved and thinly sliced
1/2 cucumbers, peeled, seeded, and thinly sliced or 3 stalks sliced celery, optional
1 or 2 medium carrot, peeled and grated very, very finely, optional
1/2 cup pitted black olives, thinly sliced into rounds or strips, optional
1/4 to 1/2 cup raisins, optional
2 to 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil or avocado oil (essential!)

Optional additions at the table
2 to 4 ounces goat or sheep milk feta, crumbled
2 to 4 tablespoons soaked and dehydrated (see Crispy Nuts) or toasted nuts or seeds:
almonds, walnuts, pecans, pumpkin seeds, pine nuts, or pistachios,left whole or coarsely chopped

1. Layer vegetables in a 3- or 4-quart bowl.  Toss gently with olive oil  to coat. Cover and refrigerate whatever you don’t plan to use right away.
2. When ready to eat, you can lightly season your portion with sea salt, pepper, or lemon juice as you like. Add a dash more oil if the salad seems dry or you need more calories and/or toss with goat or sheep milk feta or chopped or whole toasted almonds, walnuts, pine nuts, pecans, pumpkin seeds.
3. Cover and refrigerate leftovers. Use within about 3 days.

Variations:

• Experiment with different vegetables and combinations of ingredients.

 

Cool Coconut Products

I enjoy everything, or most things, coconut¬¬––the meat, the milk, the water, the oil, the butter, and the flour made from it. Besides the flavor, I like coconut products for their nutritional and medicinal benefits.

Coconut fat contains monolaurin, a fatty acid found in human mother’s milk that has proven an antiviral, antifungal, and antibacterial properties that can support your immune system.

Coconut oil is more stable in cooking, baking, and at room temp than vegetables oils, making a great alternative to vegetable oil, margarine, and butter (for those who are sensitive to even trace amounts of casein or lactose).

Coconut oil
I use coconut oil for sautéing vegetables, scrambling eggs, searing chicken breasts or tenders, roasting vegetables, and have used it in muffins, brownies, bars, and other baked goods. I’ve used it to remove eye make up and to moisturize my skin.

Coconut flakes
I sprinkle unsweetened coconut flakes over fruit salads, make coconut macaroons, and roll my Chocolate Dipped Date Nut Truffles in it.

Coconut milk
I add coconut milk to my favorite coffee alternative, Teeccinio. I use it to make creamy soups without cream, add it to sweet and savory sauces, Pumpkin Pudding Pie, and the non dairy frozen dessert recipes I developed for my most recent cookbook (see The Ice Dream Cookbook).

Coconut butter
I love drizzling coconut butter over sliced berries, peaches, melon, or my recipe for Poached Pears sweetened with raisins and Turkish dried apricots.

 Coconut water
I’ve enjoyed drinking coconut water. If you’re currently drinking Gatorade or giving it to your kids, aseptic cartons of unsweetened coconut water would make a healthier alternative, providing important minerals without artificial additives or refined sugar.

Coconut flour
This past winter I cracked the coconut flour code and, after many trials, turned out some fantastic recipes using coconut flour. I’ll post some of them after my article on the topic appears in an upcoming issue of Living Without Magazine.

Coconut body care
Besides eating coconut products, I’ve recently enjoyed wearing them and using them around the house.  I’ve used natural skin care products, personal care products, and biodegradable, non-toxic cleaning products for more than 20 years. The best products have the simplest and fewest ingredients, thing you can pronounce. In the case of body care products, the best ones contain ingredients whose names you can recognize and pronounce, many of them edible, such as honey, olive oil, coconut oil, and herbs.

I recently sampled some personal care, cleaning, and laundry products from one of my favorite coconut oil companies, Tropical Traditions. Many of their household products are made from or at least include coconut oil as a key ingredient. Here’s what I’ve tried so far. I liked all of the products.

Tropical Traditions Natural Liquid Soaps
Most liquid soaps, even the ones sold in natural foods stores, have added ingredients, fillers, that give them a thick consistency. When have you seen a liquid hand and body soap with only one ingredient? These liquid Soaps are made from 100% organic Virgin Coconut Oil, and nothing else. Scented varieties have organic essential oils added (lavender or tea tree oil).

These 100% Pure soaps are packaged in a special foam pump dispenser that adds air to the soap, which makes rich lather of foam come out. It looks like shaving cream and you could actually use it for that if you like. A little bit of this concentrated soap goes a long way.

I would get this product again. Not only does it work well, but it’s fun to use. You don’t have to toss out the container when your pump dispensers are empty; you can buy a 32-ounce refill to fill several pumps if you like.

Tropical Traditions Organic Moisturizing Lotions
Unlike most companies that use refined coconut and palm oils in their skincare products, Tropical traditions uses virgin oils that contain higher level of antioxidants, so they don’t have to add back synthetic or isolated nutrients. This 100% pure lotion is made from purified water, organic virgin coconut oil, organic jojoba, emulsifying wax (plant based, no soy),  grapefruit seed extract, and virgin palm oil. Scented varieties contain organic essential oils.

You can choose from six scents (lavender, citrus, arnica, peppermint, unscented, and baby silk). I tried the baby silk. It had a smooth, silky texture and a soothing fragrance. It softened my skin without leaving a greasy residue. I was so disappointed when I got to the bottom of the bottle! I want to buy this by the gallon! My skin felt so smooth after I put it on. It’s great for massage as well as daily moisturizing.

Tropical Traditions Lavender Deoderant Roll On
I liked this product for its simple (and short) ingredient list: purified water, organic virgin coconut oil, organic jojoba, plant based emulsifying wax, grapefruit seed extract, sodium bicarbonate (baking soda), and the following organic essential oils. It comes in three scents. I tried the Lavender. No chemical additives, no aluminum compounds, no parabens or propylene glycol.

This is not an antiperspirant. It’s not healthy to stop perspiration; you want your body to perspire. It’s one of the many ways your body gets rid of toxins and cools off. What you can do is tone done the smell by using a herbal fragrance. You may need to experiment to find the deoderant that works best for your body and has the fragrance that most suits you.

Tropical Traditions Dish Soap made from coconut oil
This product is free of fragrances, dyes, petroleum solvents, and respiratory and skin irritants. It was developed by and for people with allergies, asthma and Multiple Chemical Sensitivities.

I thought it lathered well, even in hard water. Because it’s so concentrated, it lasts a long time. It cleaned my dishes without stripping my hands the way commercial dish soaps do. I’ve used non-toxic, chemical free dish soaps for years and I really notice the difference when I go somewhere and have to use conventional soaps that dehydrate my hands. I like this product and the convenience of being able to buy it in a 1 gallon jug so I don’t have to shop as often.

Oxygen Bleach, Non-Chlorine Destainer & Deoderizer
I used this on my laundry and for cleaning the toilet. Tropical Traditions Oxygen Bleach is a safe and effective alternative to chlorine based products. It can be used in around the home. It is based on sodium percarbonate, which uses oxygen for destaining and deodorizing. It doesn’t produces no harmful by-products the way chlorine bleaches do.

I thought this worked well on my laundry and for cleaning the toilet. The instructions include tips for heavily soiled laundry and general household cleaning.

Powdered Laundry Detergent
Tropical Traditions Powdered Laundry Detergent is non-toxic, environmentally safe and contains no phosphates. Powdered Laundry Detergent cleans and safely bleaches your clothes. It also contains some of their Oxygen Bleach Destainer and Deodorizer. I thought it worked well. I would order it again. The instructions include tips for heavily soiled laundry.

More stuff
Tropical Traditions makes and markets an extensive live of safe, non-toxic personal care and household cleaning products that I want to try more of. I’ve used their virgin coconut oil, flaked coconut, palm shortening, coconut cream, and coconut flour at home, in my cooking classes, cooking demos, and for recipe development for magazine articles. I haven’t tried their red palm oil yet. These products taste great and I like that I can buy them in large containers to stock up and re-use the large gallon and 5-gallon buckets that many of their products come in.

SPECIAL OFFER
If you want to order any of these or other Tropical Traditions products, here’s how you can receive a a free copy of the book Virgin Coconut Oil: How it has changed people's lives and how it can change yours by Brian and Marianita Shilhavy with your first order online.

1. Go to: www.tropicaltraditions.com and click on 'products' found at the bottom of the menu list on the left side of the home page.
2. You'll be directed to the ordering form at the Tropical Traditions/Healthy Buyers Club website. (You do not have to be a member or purchase a membership. Membership allows you to purchase in bulk amount if you choose to join.) All regular orders for Tropical Traditions products can be placed at this website without a membership fee.
3. Select items you want to purchase from the online order form.
4. When ready to check out, click the “Check Cart'' link.
5. Review your order, then click the "Check Out" button from your shopping cart.
6.  Fill in your account information as directed. In the box: “How did you hear of us?''  you must select: “Referred by a friend’’ on the drop down arrow. When you make this selection a box for your sponsor’s User ID number should appear if you are a first time customer.
7. Enter the number 50549
8. To complete your order click "Save and Proceed to Checkout" at the bottom of this page and follow the instructions through the checkout process. You will receive an email with order number when you have successfully placed your order online.

Do you know of great coconut products with simple and pure ingredients? If so, email me to let me know about your favorite edible, personal care, or household cleaning products made from coconut oil, coconut milk, coconut butter, coconut flour, or unsweetened flaked coconut.

Raw, Fermented Salad Dressing

Looking for a good salad dressing? It’s difficult to find a store bought brand that doesn’t contain refined vegetable oils ( corn, safflower, sunflower, canola, cottonseed, partially hydrogenated oil, or generic vegetable oil), fructose or high fructose corn syrup. Many supermarket brands includes those hazardous ingredients along with artificial colorings, flavorings, chemical preservatives, and sometimes MSG.

Salmon bellies with herbs, green salad with avocado and ZukayTomato Provencal Dressing. Photo by Chef Rachel Albert-Matesz © 2009

Very few companies are willing to pay what it costs to make dressings with pure, extra virgin olive oil. They use cheap vegetable oils that are rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids that promote inflammation, suppress your immune system, and increase your risk for developing cancer and other degenerative diseases. Photo Zukay Foods

When I heard about Zukay’s Raw Fermented Salad Dressings on the Cheeseslave blog, I thought, “I’d like to try them.” So I contacted the company, told them what I do for a living, and asked them to send me a sample pack to test, which they did.

Cultured salad dressing?
These unique dressings are modeled on the practice of fermenting vegetables, fruits, and condiments practiced by traditional people around the world. If you look at the cuisines of China, Japan, India, Indonesia, Germany, and many others you will find picked or fermented foods. This practice was used to extend the shelf life and season of vegetables, to add flavor, add beneficial cultures (good bacteria) to the diet, aid digestion, and support health.

Very few people make cultured foods nowadays. It’s a lost art. I did it years ago when I was into macrobiotics, but I don’t do it now and haven't for many years. Who pickles garlic, onions, radishes, peppers, or cauliflower? Who makes sauerkraut, sushi ginger pickles, or natural dill pickles? Bottled version of these foods in stores  are usually pasteurized, which destroys the live cultures these foods used to contain when people made them for local consumption, and many contain vinegar where salt and time were used the sour them in the past. Many more contain artificial flavorings and colorings.

Now you don’t have to make these probiotic products even if you want to enjoy the flavor of old fashioned fermented foods free of additives. Zukay Live Foods is located in rural, eastern Pennsylvania (luscious farming country; I think they have more farmers’ markets per capita than anywhere else in the U.S). The founders of the company, who have been conscientious natural foods shoppers and eaters for years, get their ingredients from as close to home as possible. They support family farms in their state and region. They use simple ingredients without chemical names and numbers to make products you could reproduce in your own kitchen–––if you had the time and inclination to do it.

Beef kafata kabob, blanched veggies w/Zukay Cucumber Mint Dressig & olive oil. Photo above taken by me, Chef Rachel Albert-Matesz © 2009

What no oil?
Not only are these dressings made without refined vegetable oils, chemical preservatives, refined sugars, or additives, they’re also fat-free and oil-free. But this isn’t your typical fat-free salad dressing. These dressings are made to be mixed or served with other wholesome foods.

If you’re like me–––and you don’t follow a fat-free diet¬¬¬–––you can add extra virgin olive or avocado oil to the dressing in whatever ratio you like or you could serve the dressings over a salad tossed with sliced avocado, chopped olives, soaked and dehydrated or toasted nuts, or bacon. You can use the traditional 1 part acid (vinegar or lemon juice) plus 3 parts oil ratio (although I found that too dilute with these products) or mix Zukay salad dressings with 1 or 2 parts oil, which I thought came out just right.

Salt-free salad dressing
Since they’re made without added salt, you can add that to taste or leave it out. Try unrefined mineral rich sea salt (I like Celtic Sea Salt or Redmond Real Salt) or wheat-free tamari soy sauce (Eden or San J brand) or add some sea vegetable flakes to your favorite foods at the table.

Low carb dressing
Since these dressings don’t contain sugar or other sweeteners, you can use them even if you’re following a low carb diet. They contain only 1 or 2 grams of carbohydrate per serving (2 tablespoons), which amounts to only 4 to 8 calories before you add your favorite fat or oil source.

Six flavors to choose from
Carrot Ginger
Tomato Provencal
Cucumber Mint
Sweet Onion Basil
Red Pepper Cilantro
Tomato Pepper Pesto

I’m not sure which one I like best. This week I’ve been into Tomato Provencal. Last week I was keen on Cucumber Mint. The week before I preferred Sweet Onion Basil. Rather than add oil to each bottle, I have mixed a portion of a dressing with oil in a smaller bottle or poured the oil-free mixture over a salad and added avocado to my serving. I haven’t tried them as a marinade for chicken, but might try that next week. Not just for raw salads, I’ve used them over parboiled vegetables. Check out previous posts to learn this technique.

Photo right courtesy Zukay Live Foods.

If you’re not in the habit of eating cultured (naturally fermented foods) on a daily basis, it might take a few days or a week or two to get into the flavor. Your taste buds might need some time to adjust. Adding some unrefined sea salt can help. Once they do, I think you’ll really enjoy the dressings. I found that after a few weeks I liked the dressings even more than on the first or second try.

Where to get these dressings
Zukay is a start up company. Right now their products are sold in limited areas. If you don’t find them in natural foods stores in your town or city, you can order them directly from Zukay online. You can also ask your local health foods stores to stock their products! They also sell fermented salsa and relishes. I haven’t tried them yet.

If you try these dressings, tell me how you like them.

Chebe Pizza

Wow! Last week I had a fantastic grain-free, gluten free pizza. I didn’t go out to eat. I made the pizza from frozen dough and baked it in my toaster oven. My friend Heather came over for lunch and helped me assemble and eat the two single-serving pizzas.

Skepticism aside
We started with Chebe (pronounced chee-bee) oven-ready frozen pizza dough. I’ll admit that I was skeptical about frozen, ready to bake dough. It’s been decades since I’ve eaten any ready-to-bake and eat bread products. For years I made bread from scratch using baker’s years or a traditional sourdough starter and for many years I rarely ever ate bread.

Chebe Frozen Dough for Pizza Crust On-The Go
Now I wasn’t in a hurry to go anywhere, but I was hungry for lunch after an 18 hour fast. The simplicity of this product appealed to me and to Heather. The 11-ounce package contained two 4 1/2 x 7 1/2 by 1/4-inch rectangles of dough made from manioc flour, milk, cheese (milk, cheese cultures, salt, enzymes), egg (with citric acid), modified manioc starch (100% manioc), canola oil, iodine-free salt, dried oregano, onion, and garlic.

Caveats
Canola is not my favorite oil! In fact, I don’t buy it or cook with it and I rarely consume it. Similarly I would not buy iodine-free salt. I presume they chose this salt to meet the needs of people who are sensitive to iodine. And the cheese? Well, it’s not something I eat on a daily basis, but I do eat it as a treat, which is what I considered this pizza meal.

What is Chebe? (pronounced chee-bee)
In case you didn’t read my blog post about Chebe bread a few weeks ago. Here’s the scoop: Baked Chebe looks like white bread and has a crispy crust and a chewy interior. It’s grain-free, gluten-free, corn-free, soy-free, yeast-free, potato-free, and also free of peanuts and tree nuts. If you’re following a paleo or primal diets or simply looking for a less inflammatory bread-like treat, try Chebe.

Chebe Frozen Bread Sticks (baked) + salmon bellies & salad. Photo by Chef Rachel© 2009

Chebe comes from a root vegetable (aka cassava, manioc, tapioca) used extensively for thousands of years around the globe, cultivated about 10,000 years ago. Read more about cassava on Wikipedia.

Safety concerns about cassava?
A couple of my readers emailed me with questions about the safety of manioc root (aka cassava or tapioca). They'd read on-line that cassava root contains a toxic compound that has to be processed to neutralize these substances and prevent problems. Since tapioca is a common food used in dozens of commercial products, I figured the companies that process it know about this issue and how to properly prepare it, just as native people did.

The company that makes and markets Chebe bread mixes buys the tapioca flour and tapioca starch from a company that supplies dozens of other companies. Here's that they say: "Proper processing, water soaking (making a slurry) and heating will eliminate the cyanide out of the cassava. These steps are historically well known processing steps in Asia and Africa. "It [I assume they mean the testing] is a control point during the processing step of tapioca starch. No raised levels were ever found in the EU, so no regulations are made for tapioca starch."

Is it dairy-free? What about eggs?
Some of the Chebe mixes and frozen ready-to-bake breads contain milk, cheese, and eggs, so if you are allergic or intolerant to any of these, you’ll want to focus on the five lactose free, casein free bread mixes they offer. The instructions call for eggs because they help the dough hold together and rise, but you could try making the mixes without eggs; I haven’t done that yet. All of their products are produced by a 100% gluten-free manufacturer in a dedicated gluten free facility, so they’re celiac-safe.

Baking the dough
The package instructions said to preheat the oven to 375˚F and place the frozen pizza crusts on a non-greased baking pan, keeping 1/2-inch of space between each crust. We had a little bit of sticking, but not a lot. Next time I would oil it.

Baked Chebe crust right>>>

I used a 10x12-inch toaster oven tray and my trusty Cuisinart Convection Toaster Oven, which is very energy efficient. I can’t see turning on a full size oven for a small tray of food. To keep the baking time close to what was listed in the instructions I used regular rather than convection mode. You could use any toaster oven, although I'm partial to Cuisinart because I've found their products so reliable and durable.

I inadvertently left the dough on the baking tray for 20 to 25 minutes before popping it in the toaster oven. I actually think thawing the dough before baking gave it more loft and a crispier crust, which I like. I don't like it to be very dough inside. After baking for the allotted 20 minutes, until lightly browned, I removed the pan of pizza from the oven and we added our toppings.

We spread a thin layer of sun dried tomato pesto on one pizza then a generous layer of caramelized red onions that Heather made the night before, then slices of herbed goat cheese from Trader Joe’s.

We topped the second pizza with a traditional basil-based pesto (store bought), strips of roasted red bell peppers that Heather also made, pine nuts, and slices of soft herbed goat cheese. We popped the tray back in the toaster oven and baked it for another 5 to 7 minutes to warm the toppings.

Photo right by Rachel Albert Matesz, 2009

The verdict?
Fabulous. We cut each of the pizzas in half so we could each have a serving of each of the two pizzas served with a colorful green salad with a little bit of leftover baked salmon bellies. We loved the flavor and texture of the crust---slightly crunchy on the outside and a little chewy on the inside, a nice cross between thick and thin-crusted pizza. The lightness of the toppings allowed us to really taste the crust.

Photo right by Rachel Albert Matesz, 2009>>>

Would we make it again?
Absolutely! Both Heather and I agreed that this was worth making again. If you live alone, you could thaw a single crust for a single meal. If you’re cooking for two, you can make the whole package. You might need to figure 2 crusts per person if you’re serving an athlete or someone with a big appetite (remember each crust measures 4 1/2 x 7 1/2 by 1/4-inchesm which doubles in thickness as it bakes).

My tips
Defrost the dough for 20 to 30 minutes before baking even though the instructions don’t say to do that. Oil the baking pan or at least the bottom of the baking pan, or at least the place where the dough sits. I would use ghee, clarified butter, olive, avocado, palm, or coconut oil.

Keep checking back!
I plan to test and review more Chebe products. Let me know if you try them and what you think.

Where to find Chebe products
If you live in Phoenix, Arizona, you can buy Chebe bread mixes at Gluten Free Creations Bakery, 2940 E Thomas Rd, Phoenix, AZ 85016-8035. Or look for Chebe products in natural foods stores, such as Whole Foods Market. I'm not sure if Whole Foods sells the frozen Chebe Pizza Dough. I got mine directly from the company.

If you can’t find Chebe at a local store local retailer, you can order it on line from Amazon by clicking here or the links below or directly from the company, or ask the manager or grocery buyer of your favorite store to stock the product.

Chebe web letter
You can sign up for the Chebe Webletter, an email newsletter the company sends out about once a month. It contains news & announcements, online coupons, and spotlights a recipe using Chebe Bread Products. To view past webletters, or to subscribe, click here and then click the Webletter drop down menu.

Healthy Edible Gifts for the Holidays

Delight everyone on your gift list with homemade sweet and savory treats that are both delicious and healthy. It's not too early to start thinking about holiday gift giving.

Love the holidays but not the gluttony of shopping,over-spending, over-eating and waste? You can avoid the malls by making mouth-watering consumables from simple, wholesome ingredients. Photo credit right unknown>>>

Great gift ideas for the holidays
Each year, I make a selection of offerings from my Favorite’s List (list below). This year, I’m publishing my list here, so you can start thinking about and planning what to make. The recipes can be found in both of my cookbooks, The Garden of Eating: A Produce-Dominated Diet & Cookbook and my dessert book, The Ice Dream Cookbook: Dairy Free Ice Cream Alternatives with Gluten Free Cookies, Compotes & Sauces. Some can be found on this blog using the category links on the left.

Photo credit right Julie Ann Elefante ©2008

These recipes are budget-friendly, allergy-friendly, and diet-friendly, so they can satisfy a wide range of tastes, preferences, and dietary needs.

No returns or exchanges!
Those who receive my gifts never ask how to return or exchange them. They don’t add to the landfills or complain about gaining unwanted weight. Many feel relieved not to receive another gadget, knick-knack, or gooey tray of fudge. They appreciate the healthfulness, uniqueness, and thought that went into the gift and many re-use the containers. Photo right Chef Rachel ©2009

What else can you do to be thrifty?
Save and re-use ribbons, gift bags, and wrapping paper. Create collage-cards from photographs, pictures clipped from magazines, and cards from previous holidays. You will you save paperr and have fun making custom cards. Best of all, everyone will appreciate the thought that went into their one-of-a-kind creations.

Planning tips
You can make some items weeks or months ahead. Fruit roll-ups, beef or bison jerky, and dried apple chips keep for more than a year at room temperature, longer in the freezer. Mixtures of whole spice seeds keep for months; freshly powdered spice rubs taste best made within two to four weeks gift giving. (They’ll stay fresh longer if vacuum sealed.)

You can prepare these perishable ahead: homemade cookies, breads, muffins, peanut sauce, applesauce, barbecue sauce, chutney, and nut butter-based dips ––if you properly pack and freeze them to retain freshness and flavor.

How to bag it
You can pack your treasures in half-pint, pint and quart canning jars, redecorated salad dressing bottles, plant-based cellulose bags with silver or gold twist ties, or gift boxes lined with foil and parchment paper. Use plastic bags for bread and anything else that must be kept airtight but won’t easily fit in jars. Make fun and pretty gift and instruction cards that include credit for the book and author whose recipe you use, then attach them with festive ribbons.

When you pack cookies or breads in zippered bags, separate each layer with pieces of unbleached parchment paper and place a piece of unbleached paper towel inside the top and bottom of the bag to absorb moisture. Insert the end of a straw two or three inches into the bag; zip the bag closed to meet the straw; exhale the air from your lungs, then inhale deeply through the straw to suck the air out of the bag. Pinch the straw shut, then pull it out and zip the bag closed to prevent freezer burn. Now you can stash it in the freezer.

Photo credit right Chef Rachel (me!) ©2008

No bag deal: Just jar it!
Stash perishable liquid items in wide-mouth canning jars even if you don’t can. Use a wide-mouth funnel to fill the jars. Do not fill  beyond the lip in the jar and leave 1 1/2-inchs of headroom for expansion in freezing. Allow warm items to cool slightly, uncovered, at room temp, then refrigerate. When food reaches refrigerator temperature, cover tightly (vacuum seal if desired), and freeze.

A Tilia Food Saver® with accessory attachments allow you to seal food in canning jars. It removes air from containers and seals in freshness, flavor, fragrances, and nutrients,  prevents freezer burn and keeps food fresh up to five times longer than conventional containers or plastic wrap. Look for them in my Amazon store or use the links above.

Photo credit right Chef Rachel (me!) ©2008

Decorate jars with ribbons and pretty fabric cut into circles with pinking shears (make the fabric cut outs 2-inches wider than  jar tops). Place pieces of fabric on top of vacuum sealed jars before screwing on the metal bands.

SPECIAL NOTE: Vacuum sealing does not replace refrigeration, freezing, or canning. Food can still spoil. Let your gift recipients know which gifts need to be stored in the refrigerator or freezer.

Five tips to keep your food in ship shape

1. Tightly seal jars and containers. Vacuum seal if possible. Slip jars into zip-locking bags, leaving air in the bag for cushioning. Wrap each jar with bubble wrap.
2. Choose a sturdy box.  Cushion jars with wadded up newspaper, cornstarch or styrofoaf peanuts, popcorn, or more bubble wrap.
3. When shipping multiple items, place heavy stuff in the bottom of the box and allow plenty of space and cushioning between the objects.
4. To prevent shifting, shake the box down, then add more stuffing as needed.
5. To reduce shipping costs, ship refrigerated or frozen items in separate boxes from non-perishables.

How to ship perishables
Buy dry ice in supermarkets in 5-pound plastic bags. One bag will keep the contents of an 18-cube box (18x18x18) cold for 24 hours. Take it to your local UPS store with refrigerated or frozen food gifts and have them pack it properly and ship it next day air.

Photo credit right Chef Rachel (me!) ©2007

Labeling tips
Use waterproof markers and large, bold print for ship to and return address labels on the outside of your boxes. Secure labels with clear shipping tape. Label “PERISHABLE” and ship the fastest method possible.

Cookbooks make great gifts
If you’ve enjoyed my cookbooks, cooking classes, cooking demos, and blog post, consider buying copies of The Garden of Eating and The Ice Dream Cookbook to give to your health-conscious family members, friends, neighbors, and co-workers. Incidentally, people who don’t have food allergies or intolerances have thoroughly enjoyed these cookbooks and the recipes made from them.

Healthy Edible Gift Ideas from The Garden of Eating
Spicy Peanut Sauce
Cashew-Dill or Cashew Macadamia Dill Dip
 Poppy Seed Pineapple Drizzle
Moroccan BBQ Spice Mix
Moroccan BBQ Sauce
Better Barbecue Sauce (doubles as red sauce for anything)
My Favorite Macaroons
Better Than Store-bought Apple Sauce
Fruit Roll Ups
Cranberry-Apple Compote
Dark Chocolate Dipped Date Nut Truffles
Apple-Apricot Compote
Homemade Beef & Bison Jerky
Dried Apple Chips

Healthy Edible Gift Ideas from The Ice Dream Cookbook
Sesame Seed & Pumpkin Seed Pralines
Cashew, Almond & Pecan Pralines
 Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Blondies
Gluten-Free Better Brownies
Dark Chocolate Dipped Date Nut Truffles
Better Than Store-bought Apple Sauce
Gluten-Free Banana Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
Gluten-Free Chocolate Cookies
Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies
Gluten-Free Pumpkin Spice Cookies
Gluten-Free Gingerbread Cookies 
Gluten-Free Graham Crackers
Cranberry-Apple Compote
Apple-Apricot Compote
Karly’s Carob Sauce & Karly’s Chocolate Sauce

Pomegranate Dressing

Judicious Use of juice
I’m not a big fan of fruit juice. It’s all too easy for people to drink the concentrated essence of the many pieces of fruit, taking in far too much fruit and sugar in a single serving. This can elevate insulin levels and also contribute a lot of empty calories to your diet or your child’s diet. However, I think fruit juice can safely be used in cooking. You can use it to replace sugar in some recipes, such as salad dressing, where it provides a sweet taste with added antioxidants you wouldn’t get if you used sugar, honey, agave nectar, or other sweeteners. The key: use 100% real fruit juice.

Photo credit: Pom Wonderful

One of my favorite ways to use fruit juice in cooking is to boil it down, making what’s know as a reduction, then thicken it with arrowroot, allow it to cool, and add a mild tasting oil such as flax oil, unrefined avocado, almond, or hemp seed oil.

I usually use pineapple or orange juice for this, although I’ve also combined cranberry and white grape juice. Sometimes I add poppy seeds and dried, rubbed sage. I always add mustard, ground black or white pepper. Sea salt is optional, but does punch up the flavor of the other ingredients. This week I tried something different: Pomegranate juice.

Ancient fruit
Botanists believe that pomegranates were among the earliest cultivated foods, planted sometime between 4000 and 3000 B.C. The fruit has been revered as a symbol of health, fertility, and rebirth.

Try Pom Wonderful Pomegranate juice
I received samples of POM Wonderful Pomegranate Juice. The name comes from the “Wonderful” variety of pomegranate used exclusively in this brand of juice. Like apples, grapes, and pears, there are many varieties of pomegranate and each one contains differing levels of antioxidants and vitamins. The Wonderful variety is revered for its combination and concentrations of powerful antioxidants, its delicious taste, and its deep crimson color.

Photo credit: Pom Wonderful

Know the Source
POM juice is grown, picked, juiced (using a proprietary technology), and manufactured by a single company located in the San Joaquin Valley. They even manufacture the bottles they use, which are made of harder, and thus more stable, plastic. Because they don’t buy their juice from other companies, they know what goes into their product and what doesn’t. They don’t add sugar, preservatives, colors, or cheap fillers to their juice the way some companies do and they never use imported juice. When buying fruit juices, read labels carefully some companies mix expensive juices, such as pomegranate, with cheaper juices, such as apple or white grape, to reduce their costs.

Health benefits of pomegranate
You’ve probably heard that pomegranates promote heart health, prostate health, and circulation. The research on that was done with Pom Wonderful Pomegranate juice.
POM Wonderful 100% Pomegranate Juice is the only pomegranate juice backed by $25 million in medical research. Actually, they’re the only pomegranate juice backed by any medical research at all.

Photo credit: Pom Wonderful

Wine vs. pomegranate jJuice
Go for the juice! According to the company that manufactures Pom Wonderful Pomegrante Juice, tests showed that ounce for ounce, pomegranate juice contains 17% more polyphenol antioxidants than red wine. (6.1 mM vs. 5.2mM) and that 100% pomegranate juice neutralized 54% more free radicals than the same size serving of red wine (71% vs. 46% neutralization).

Best of all, you won’t get pulled over for drinking pomegranate juice.  If you are going to drink it, I suggest mixing 1 part pomegranate juice with 1, 2 or 3 parts sparkling mineral water (preferably water you've filtered at home using a Multi Pure Home Drinking Water Filtration System and carbonated using a Soda Stream Soda Maker) for a delicious, festive looking, low sugar mocktail.

Pomegranate juice vs. other beverages
Hundreds of scientific tests have shown that POM Wonderful Pomegranate Juice contains more and stronger antioxidants than concord grape juice, blueberry juice, cranberry juice, orange juice, apple juice, acai juice, black cherry juice, and green tea.

Click here to view research on POM Wonderful 100% Pomegranate Juice for cardiovascular health, atherosclerosis, prostate, health, and more.

Photo credit: Pom Wonderful

Cooking with Pomegranate juice
I love the tangy and slightly sweet flavor pomegranate juice adds to the salad dressing recipe below. You can also use it as the liquid for brining a turkey, poaching fish, marinating pork, making a glaze for chicken breasts, game hens, or leg of lamb, and more.

You can add whole pomegranate seeds to so many dishes for a festive look and interesting texture. I look forward to making pomegranate syrup as an Ice Dream topping and even pomegranate ice dream and many other recipes this fall.

For more recipes and gorgeous pictures using pomegranate juice and whole pomegranate fruit, click here

Pomegranate Drizzle and Poppy Seed Pomegranate Drizzle     

Prep: 15 minutes/ Cooking: 45 minutes/ Yield: 2 3/4 cups; 11 servings

This sweet and tangy dressing revals store bought salad dressings! It has a silky smooth texture and great taste and it’s better for your health. It’s free of high fructose corn syrup, soy, safflower, canola, and cottonseed oil, and chemical names or numbers. It also contains less fat and calories than most bottled dressings. The sweetness it does contain provides powerful antioxidants.

Consider making a double batch to share with family and friends. It would make a great gift during the holidays. Chef Jeff McKahon of Toledo Ohio’s Rohr Fish & Seafood inspired this recipe, originally made with orange juice.

Note: For a sweeter taste, add xylitol after powdering it in a spice-dedicated coffee grinder or 1 cup at a time in a Vita-Mix so it resembles powdered sugar. This will help it dissolve and eliminate any gritty texture.  

Ingredients:

• 1 quart (4 cups) 100% pure pomegranate juice (I used POM Wonderful Juice)
• 1/2 teaspoon unrefined sea salt (Celtic or Redmond Real Salt; links below), optional
• 3 tablespoons poppy seeds, optional (tastes great with and without)
• 1/4 teaspoon finely ground black pepper or white pepper
• 1 1/2 tablespoons arrowroot powder dissolved in 3 tablespoons cool or cold filtered water
• 1/2 to 3/4 cup Barleen’s flax seed oil, extra firgin avocado oil, Eden® unrefined, untoasted sesame oil or Nutiva hempseed oil (see links below)
  
• 3 drops vitamin-E oil (from a dropper bottle or capsule)
• 2 teaspoons Now® Apple Fiber Powder for thickness, optional (see link below)
• 1 to 2 tablespoons Dijon, yellow, or Creamy White Mustard (see link below)
• 1 to 3 tablespoons powdered xylitol (see notes above) or 1 to 2 tablespoons honey, optional

1. Bring the pomegranate juice and optional salt to a rolling boil in a wide and shallow 2- or 3-quart pot. Cook, uncovered, over medium heat until reduced to 2 cups (check volume by pouring the juice intao a heat-proof Pyrex measuring container).
2. Add optional poppy seeds, pepper, and dissolved arrowroot. Stir over medium-low heat until mixture thickens, turns clear, and coats the  back of a spoon, 3 to 4 minutes.
3. Cool the pot in an ice-bath or at room temperature or refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Add the oil, vitamin-E oil, optional apple fiber, and mustard and whisk or process in a blender or with an immersion blender. If you prefer a sweeter taste, add powdered xylitol or erythritol 1 tablespoon at a time, blending after each addition.
4. Pour into one or more glass jars, label, and refrigerate until cold, and then freeze what you don’t plan to consume within a month, leaving 1-inch of head-space in the top of each wide-mouth jar.

Figures not available using pomegranate juice in the recipe above

1/4 cup serving w/pineapple juice: 160 calories, 1 g protein, 15 g carbohydrate (1/2 g fiber), 11 g fat, 50 mg calcium

1/4 cup serving w/orange juice: 145 calories, 1 g protein, 11 g carbohydrate, 11 g fat, 43 mg calcium

Source: Recipe modified from The Garden of Eating: A Produce—Dominated Diet & Cookbook by Rachel Albert-Matesz & Don Matesz