Post Punk Kitchen Forum

Well, I guess I just have to take it all in stride. I focus on all the things I can eat, instead. That, and there are so many options available now that it's really not as difficult as it sounds.

I can eat all kinds of whole grains and starches that do not contain gluten: brown rice, wild rice, buckwheat, sorghum, quinoa, potatoes, sweet potatoes, all kinds of squashes, etc.

I can eat every kind of bean except soy. And there are a looooooooooot of beans!!

I can eat every seed and nut except peanuts. Again, long list.

I can eat every single vegetable and fruit on the planet!! Hurray!! (although I'm not the world's biggest fan of eggplant.)

I have to limit the amount of nutritional yeast and tomato paste I consume due to there very high glutamic acid content. If you consume long-enough glutamic acid chains, you eventually make a gluten. Figured that one out the hard way! Not too many celiacs know that, I'll bet! I still use them in small amounts. So it's only a slight restriction. And I have to make most of my own condiments, if I can't find an adequate substitute in the market. (Soy, it's in everything vegan! ugh! or corn, in everything gluten-free.) Those are the biggest frustrations.

But, the way to beat the frustrations is to use them as fuel for your creativity. I just have to be willing to think my way around a problem. Invented soy-free vegan mayonnaise, for example, out of lemon juice, cashew butter and butter beans, pinch of salt - blend. Works just fine for me! It makes me feel quite proud of myself to think my way out of a problem. LOL!!

I made the Thai Vegetable Stew tonight, and it was really good! Not hot (maybe my chili paste is on the mild side), and plenty lime-y, both of which I like. And the lite coconut milk and water-sauteeing the onion both worked fine. I really liked the cilantro and mint added at the end.

Specifics: For vegetables I used broccoli, red bell pepper, sweet potatoes, and water chestnuts. Excellent combo, but next time I won't add them all at the same time (overcooked broccoli; rookie mistake). For the broth I used a Rapunzel no-salt bouillon cube with a cup of water, so it was extra concentrated. I also added tofu, for a little extra somethin'.

I'll definitely make it again! Oh and when I do, I will chop things in advance, because damn, that was a lot of chopping.

Isa's Pumpkin Spice Bread from this cookbook is in the oven right now! I used pumpkin puree that I made today from a CSA pie pumpkin (and still have 5 cups left...I'm thinking VWAV pumpkin waffles for dinner one night this week). I did put 1 tsp of oil in the pan (shh!) and spread it around because I know my nonstick loaf pan cannot be trusted and I really wanted the bread to come out -- literally.

Can't wait to try it later tonight!

The Pumpkin Spice Bread is delicious -- it's pretty filling for a bread and isn't so sweet that it just makes me want to eat half the loaf. I can be satisfied with a slice for dessert, topped with a little apple butter or pumpkin butter.

I made the Lentil Chili. It's excellent and requires no salt (I have to be very careful with sodium because of my blood pressure).

I made the pumpkin spice bread this past weekend. It is delicious, and I will definitely make it again. The middle of the loaf is moister than the ends, which is normal for any kind of baked bread. I'd like to try it with homemade apple butter, if I can remember to make that.

I love the Chinese Brown Sauce! I made the Stir Fried Noodles with Spring Vegetables with it the other night, and I think dinner over the next few weeks will be super simple with a batch of the sauce in the fridge and some pre-chopped stir fry veg mixes, one of the super market chains do a good variety of mixes.

Your post inspired me to make this last night and it was sooo good! The brown sauce is also a really good marinade for tofu!

So I noticed this book relies frequently on brown rice syrup or date molasses for sweeteners. It got me thinking about how refined sugar is so maligned in health food books, but really, I have to wonder if you end up using a bunch of unrefined sweeteners isn't it to the same end? Maybe a bunch is not accurate...I don't think FOK is advocating consumption of mass quantities of any sugar. My point is, why spend $7 on a bottle of brown rice syrup for some false sense of security when I could use cheaper refined sugar as a sweetener and just use it, like all indulgent things, in moderation? Is there any science behind this (like avoiding sucrose to avoid glucose/insulin release) or is it woo?

This makes a lot of sense to me. I bought a bag of sucanat, and had to grind it to use it in my baking. Honestly, I didn't notice much difference. It wasn't quite as sweet as white sugar, but really? I agree with you - moderation is the key when it comes to any kind of sweetener.

I made the quinoa banana muffins and they were really good! Usually I don't like things made with spelt flour but I really liked these. For the dry sweetener, I used 1/2 cup of evaporated cane juice and they were plenty sweet to me, I'd probably cut down the amount next time (disclaimer: I don't like very sweet muffins).

I did NOT like the 'cheese' sauce (I made it with raw onion). It just tasted like....raw onion. I think next time I will try it with fried onions.

Also, the dressing for the kale salad with maple mustard dressing is really good! It's really, really thick, so I added a teeny tiny amount of water to thin it to more of a dressing consistency.

So glad I bought this book!

I made the southwest version of the cheesy potato soup. I added some salsa for an extra kick - it was really good!

Oooh, I'm going to try the kale salad tonight. I made the arugula/orange/fennel salad for a party and it was really good!

I made the peanut butter granola bars today. I like that it's just a handful of pantry friendly ingredients. Very simple and yummy. Some chocolate chips may have fallen into the batter...

The autumn stew was also very tasty! I used parsnip instead of turnip, but I don't think that's a big deal.

I was eyeing up those pb granola bars earlier! I think I need to try them out.

I'm always amazed at how well these recipes turn out.

YES. I had to throw out a 9x13 pan of the broccoli with cheesy sauce. It was inedible.

Everything else I've made we've enjoyed, though! Definitely more hits than misses.

I made the cheesy rice/broccoli caserole. I just boiled the onion for a few minutes before adding it to the cheese sauce and it tasted really good. Very homey, and omni approved.

I make these pretty much every week! Often with choc chips.

Interesting! I would never have thought of boiling the onion, I'll try that!

In another one of these no-oil cookbooks (I think the Barnard one), they have you roast onions in foil before adding them to things like this. It's convenient, because you can just throw an onion in while you're cooking something else.

Wow, that roasting onions in foil trick is brilliant! Thanks for mentioning, mollyjade!

The chickpea avocado salad is good, I thought it needed a little salt though.

I was only so so on the lentil chili. Honestly that was mostly looks for me. For whatever reason, I didn't like the red lentils and the kidney beans together, it looked icky to me (I admit that this isn't logical).

The banana bread just came out of the oven. Smells so good! I read through the book on my kindle last night and then went to Whole Foods and randomly bought ingredients I remembered seeing repeatedly. Hate when I do that. So I have to really try to make a lot from this book. :) The cardamom pods are so cute! I've never seen them before.

I bought this on sale...I feel bad for using my oil-y hummus in place of oil-free. No one tell OK! ;P

Currently I have Isa's Apple Cinnamon Granola bars in the oven. They smell good, but I had to watch the mix on the stovetop, I have a crappy stove that gets over hot even on low and stuff can start to stick/burn really quickly.