"You need a really small stool to milk a corn kernel"

That quote is from my dad.  When I mentioned I was going to make corn milk the other day, that was his response.  He seemed impressed with his joke.  So I thought I'd make mention of it here.  Which is probably dumb because now I'm just encouraging these oh so sophisticated jokes.

Do you watch Master Chef?  It's on Fox on Monday and Tuesday evenings.  It's a cooking competition between home cooks.  These folks haven't worked in restaurants or been chef's anywhere.  So it's more relateable.  Well sort of relateable.  I doubt I'll ever be able to butcher anything and those guys can.  Last week they had a challenge of making a desert using corn.  One of the contestants made corn milk and then used that to make a corn shortcake.  I had it stuck in my head all week and eventually looked up what I thought would be a long, messy task in the kitchen. 

Google "Corn Milk"

Reading, reading...

Oh, it's just cooked corn off the cob and a cup of water, blended and strained?  Welp...

Yeah thats really all it is. 

Corn Milk

- 1 large ear of corn (or 2 smaller ears, about a cup of corn if you're using canned corn)

- 1 cup of water

Blend corn and water together and strain liquid through a fine sieve.  If you want it thicker, perhaps to replace whole milk or cream, add more corn. 

Here's a few facts about using corn milk.  It's a great milk substitute.  It can be used in both sweet and savory dishes.  But don't use it in hopes of saving calories.  It has the same amount of calories, cup to cup, as 2% milk.  However, it has less fat.  It does have sugar, but it's natural sugar.  And, my favorite part is this - you know where it's coming from.  You know you don't have to worry about hormones or poor conditions for animals (I mean you still have to worry about those).  Corn is easy to find locally in most places within the US.  Support your local farmers and make you some corn milk!  (Or get your cows milk from local farmers - that's a really good thing too.)

Moving on to a yeasted corn bread, perfect for sandwiches.  It's a tasty way to shake up the regular sandwich.  It's a little on the sweet side so I paired it with spicy additions like black bean hummus with jalapenos and grilled turkey coated in some Emril seasoning.  Balance, baby.  Balance.

Sweet Corn Yeast Bread

- 1 pkg active dry yeast

- 3/4 cup warm corn milk (test warmth on your wrist.  You can use water or regular milk if you prefer.)

- 1 tblsp honey

- 1 tsp salt

- 1 tblsp olive oil

- 1 cup cornmeal

- 2 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour

In a bowl, mix milk and yeast a few times with a wooden spoon and let sit for about 5 minutes.  Stir in honey, salt, and cornmeal.  Start adding flour, 1/4 of a cup at a time, and mix in well.  Continue to add flour until dough pulls away from the side of the bowl and starts to form a ball.  Dust a cutting board with flour and knead dough until its smooth and elastic, adding any remaining flour to fight off stickiness. 

Place dough in a oiled bowl, roll around in the bowl to coat, and cover with a towel and place in warm place for about an hour, or until dough has doubled.

Once dough has risen, knead dough for a few turns and then form into a loaf.  Place on a baking sheet, cover with a towel, and let rise for another 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  When bread has finished rising, bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.  Let cool before slicing.

Now let's make a sammich. 

As I mentioned, I made my sandwich with spicy black bean hummus, turkey, avocado, and tomato.  I liked the heat mixed with the sweet.  But you could try this with anything.  You could even make a breakfast sandwich with it, using a fried egg or just some jam!

But if you wanna make it like I did, here's my recipe (well it's really dad's recipe) for black bean hummus.

Spicy Black Bean Hummus

- 1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

- 4 or 5 slices of jalapeno

- 1 tsp salt

- 2 tsp garlic powder

- 2 tsp cumin

- 1 tblsp olive oil

Pulse all of the ingredients in a food processor until smooth.  Store in an air tight container.

You can use that hummus as a condiment or just eat it as a dip with chips or on a tortilla all rolled up!

And just in case you were wondering, I did end up copying Master Chef and making shortcake using this recipe, but replacing milk with the corn milk I made.  And it was too good to even talk about.

Carbs are my friends

They are my friends.  They are my super mean friends that make me feel fat and bloated, but also happy and satisfied.  Just like real friends should.

I've been trying to limit my carb intake to one meal a day, as I've mentioned before.  So I gotta make those carbs meaningful and delicious, otherwise, what's the dang point?  It's my payoff for exercise doing torture poses in yoga for an hour. 

The other day I got my carb fix from pasta.  I've been wanting to try udon noodles in a dish.  Mostly because I'm fascinated by them.  Udon noodles are generally seen in Korean cuisine and are made from wheat flour.  They're thick but they only cook for 2 or 3 minutes and not a minute more.  Which is kinda awesome.  I'd read about different eggplant purees and decided I wanted to make one into a "cream" sauce in place of actual cream.  Trying to make this carb dish as guiltless as possible. 

I went vegan with this dish, but you could add parmesan in place of the nutritional yeast.  I roasted the eggplant for extra flavor, and the heat from roasting the eggplant should melt the parmesan right into this sauce. 

This is ridiculously satisfying and delicious.  Try it with any leftover veggies you have sitting around.  You can also use whole wheat linguine noodles or spaghetti noodles instead of udon.  I think I really just wanted to say I used udon noodles.  You can find them at Kroger in the Asian food section.

Asparagus, Portabella, and Udon with Roasted Eggplant Cream Sauce

- 1 bunch of asparagus

- 5 or 6 baby bella mushrooms

- 1/2 pack of Udon noodles

- 1 medium sized eggplant

- 2 tblsp nutritional yeast (or 1/4 cup grated parmesan)

- 2 or 3 cloves of garlic

- 1 tblsp olive oil

- 1 tsp sesame oil

- 1 tblsp grated ginger (or 1 tsp powdered ginger)

- 1 green chili, sliced

- salt to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Slice eggplant, lengthwise, and place, cut side down, on a foil lined baking sheet.  Cook until skin is blackened, about 25 - 30 minutes. Set aside and cool.

When eggplant is ready, bring a large pot of water to a boil (if using udon noodles, don't salt the water).  While water is heating up, scoop out the insides of the eggplant, pulling away from the peel.  Place eggplant in a food processor and pulse with nutritional yeast, garlic, and a pinch of salt. Set puree aside.

In a medium skillet, heat olive oil and sautee 1 clove of minced garlic and ginger for about a minute.  Add sesame oil, asparagus, and baby bellas.  Sautee veggies for about 3-5 minutes or until tender. 

Meanwhile, once water is boiling, drop udon noodles in the water for 2 minutes (seriously, don't go over 3 or the noodles get mushy.  Yuck.).  Drain noodles.  Add noodles to the veggies and stir in the skillet.  Stir in cream sauce and serve.

This is some really amazing stuff.  And, once again, it's pretty guilt free, it's fresh, and it satisfies the carb monster.  We all have one. 



50 shades of purple

I really have no idea what I'm doing when I title posts sometimes...
I almost hate starting a sentence with "I saw this recipe on Pinterest", just because it's used so much it almost makes my head spin.  I love Pinterest and it's such an amazing source for inspiration.  But errrrrrrrrrrrbody is on Pinterest and it's becoming so big that I rarely go a week without hearing or saying the phrase "Oh, I got it from Pinterest!".  But I did get this idea for a recipe from Pinterest.  I am part of the phenomenon.  I'm cool with it.

I had some beets that had been forgotten (poor beets) in the back of my crisper and was so excited to try the beet hummus I'd seen.  But I only had 2 or 3 small beets. So I tweaked the original recipe I'd seen and roasted the beets I had and then combined them with the usual chick peas.  It's a hybrid!

Roasted Beet Hummus

- 2 or 3 small to medium sized beets, rinsed
- 1 tblsp olive oil for roasting
- 1 can garbanzo beans (chick peas)
- 2 or 3 cloves of garlic
- 2 tblsp tahini
- 2 tblsp olive oil
- 2 tsp cumin
- 2 tsp turmeric
- 1 lemon, juiced
- 1/4 cup plain greek yogurt (optional.  I like to add it just to make the hummus extra creamy.  Yum.)
- salt to taste

Preheat oven to 400.  In a baking dish, place rinsed beets and drizzle with olive oil.  Cover dish with a lid and bake for 35-40 minutes.  After beets have cooled, remove skin.

In a food processor, pulse roasted beets, chick peas, garlic, tahini, olive oil, cumin, turmeric, lemon juice, yogurt, and salt until well combined and smooth.

Serve with homemade pita bread (recipe here), veggies, or chips.


Not only is this hummus SO pretty to look at, but it's sweet and roasty and divine.

Stop asking me for chips!

Have I mentioned to you that my kids don't like sugar?  It's weird.  And they didn't get it from me.  In their 2 and a half years they have winced and spit out ice cream, chocolate, cupcakes, whipped cream, peanut butter, jam, candy, and rice crispy treats.  What the crap is up with these little people?!  I'm sure, at some point in their lives that will change.  But as it stands, they have no interest in sweets. 

They do, however, love fruit.  Nature's candy.  Why can't I just be satisfied with that?  They also LOVE chips.  Can't get enough of'm.  I get asked for chips on a daily basis.  And I say no plenty of times, but it is the one bit of junk food they eat.  They've still never had fast food (fast food isn't fast in the country, y'all), they don't eat anything fried at home, what a couple of chips now and then?

And then, out of nowhere, I remembered one of my favorite things to eat when I was a kid:  Apple chips.  Oh yeah.  Sweet and tart and crunchy.  So good and not a thing wrong with them.  They satisfy your chip craving while also keeping away medical professionals!  I love it!

It's like little apple pie chips, is what it's like.  My kids LOVE apples. And they LOVE chips.  Apple Chips?  This is going to be like Christmas in July! 

They wanted nothing to do with them.

They looked at me like, "Mom, this doesn't look like an apple OR a tortilla chip?  Stop yankin' my chain."  But had they at least tried them, man would they have been in heaven.  Whatever.  Sometimes kids are weird.  Or, rather, sometimes my kids are weird.  They don't like rice crispy treats!  Obviously they're weirdos.

Adorable weirdos.

What's this post about?  Oh yeah - Apple chips.

Cinnamon Apple Chips

- 3 firm apples (I used Fuji.  Try Gala, Granny Smith, or Pink Lady apples if you'd rather)

- 1 lemon, juiced

- 2 tsp cinnamon

- 2 tsp raw sugar (optional)

Preheat oven to 200 degrees.

Slice apples with a mandolin or a paring knife, about 1/8" thick. 

In a bowl, mix apple slices, lemon juice, and cinnamon, until apples are well coated.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  Place apple slices on the baking sheet, making sure they aren't touching.  Bake for about an hour and then flip the apple slices so that they cook evenly, and cook for an additional hour or more, until they are crispy.

Note:  Apple chips will be a little flimsy when they come out of the oven, but after cooling they'll crisp up completely.

These are one of my favorite snacks still.  I mean who doesn't love chips you can eat all day and not feel bad about?  No one.  That's who.

Cold as ice

I don't wanna harp on summer heat too much.  Everyone does it.  I do it.  It's hard not to.  IT'S FREAKING HOT.  Ever since I was a teenager, summer was the ideal time for me to lose some weight because it was so hot I couldn't even eat.  It was just carrot sticks and apples and spinach salad.  I grew up in Florida and the humidity was like being hugged by a sumo wrestler.  Buh.

So that's what brought me to making salad for lunch all this week.  After a rainy couple of weeks, where things seemed to cool off, it's back to raging heat.  I may as well take advantage of this appetite suppressing weather and eat like a bird.  I got some ROCKIN' green dream pants for my birthday and while they technically will go on me, they are far too tight.  Mayhaps the heat will have me in my dream pants by fall!

(Don't worry...I eat like a bird for breakfast and lunch...but by dinner, the temp has dropped and I is ready to chow.  Come'ere kit kats!)

Do you know about jicama?  I think I heard about it on Chopped, maybe.  It's kind of like a cross between a carrot and a pear.  Slightly sweet, nice a crunchy, packed with water.  I've seen it in fruit salad just as much as I've seen it paired with veggies.  It's at The Pig in Batesville, but if you don't have it around, you could use parsnips or turnips even.  It's a salad.  You can use whatever you want!

But I recommend, no matter what your salad consists of, that you try this kiwi vinaigrette.

Kiwi Vinaigrette

- 3 ripe kiwi (the kiwi should have a little bit of give to it when you squeeze it)

- 3 tablespoons of rice vinegar (or cider vinegar, or white balsamic)

- pinch of salt

Blend all of the ingredients in a blender or food processor until well combined and serve.  Store in an air tight container.

You could also try this with mangoes, strawberries, or blackberries.  Just a thought.  A delicious thought.

Getting rid of the Monday's

Pancakes are a tradition in our house, on the weekends.  Pancakes pretty much guarantee that all four of us will be around the table at the same time, sharing a meal.  Joe works in the evenings and I'm running around like a crazy person, trying to keep all the plates spinning, so Saturdays and Sundays are pretty important when it comes to family time, particularly meal time.  We did our traditional pancakes together on Saturday and I guess they really stuck with the kids this time, because Charlie asked me for pancakes first thing this morning.  They're easy to throw together and I thought "why not?".  I'm out of eggs and as I started thinking about it, I kind of wanted to avoid another heavy breakfast for them.  It's really a once a week kind of thing.  Yeah, I'm annoying.  And then I was starting to get things together and I thought I'd go crazy and take out all of the dairy products.  Replace the butter with coconut oil and the milk with soy milk.  Now it's healthier AND it's something I can share with niece, who has to eat completely diary free.

I have to say, after making all these changes...these pancakes tasted EXACTLY THE SAME as any other pancake.  Looked the same.  They're the same.  Crazy.

Here's a big tip I've discovered along the way of vegan baking.  Letting your batter for cakes or breads or pancakes, rest for 5 to 10 minutes, after you've mixed the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, will help everything bind together...which is the point of eggs in most baking recipes.  When I first mixed this batter together it was incredibly runny.  After sitting for 5 minutes, it was thick like batter should be. 

Ok, I didn't eat or serve this many pancakes at one time.  That would be ridiculous.  Well, it would be ridiculous for me to SAY I would eat this many pancakes at once.  What I say and what I do, on rare occasion, don't match.  All of that is to say, I would eat 5 pancakes in no time flat.  But here's what's nice about these pancakes - you're cutting out eggs, butter, and milk.  That's a lot of fat you're cutting out.  I did the math and these pancakes are 107 calories a piece.  Add a teaspoon of honey (I hate maple syrup, by the way.  The smell, the taste, all of it.  But you can use it if you're brave), some strawberries and blueberries and it's about the same as a bowl of granola and yogurt.  You could make a big batch, freeze what you don't eat, pop them in the toaster on the morning you wanted one, and boom - you gots pancakes.  It's a nice shake up in your breakfast routine.  

I'm making such a big deal out of the easiest thing in the world to cook.  But it's nice to have a healthy, tasty spin option.

Egg Free, Dairy Free, So Good Pancakes

- 1 cup unbleached all purpose flour

- 1 tsp cinnamon

- 2 tsp baking soda

- 1 cup soy milk

- 1 tsp honey

- 1 tblsp vegetable oil

- 1 tblsp water

- 1 tsp vanilla extract

- 2 tblsp coconut oil

Combine all dry ingredients together and mix slightly.  Add milk, oil, water, and vanilla.  Stir together until just combined, being careful not to over mix (over mixing makes your pancakes flat-so).  It's ok if it's lumpy - it should be!  Set the bowl aside to rest for a few minutes.

Melt the coconut oil on a skillet over medium heat.  Once melted, pour the oil into the batter and stir into batter.  Return the pan to the heat.  Once pan is good and hot, pour about 1/4 cup of batter onto pan and let it cook until bubbles start to form on the surface.  Carefully flip onto other side and let cook until both sides are golden brown and cooked through. 

Add fruit, nuts, or chocolate chips to the batter if you like.  Or split your flours in half, using 1/2 cup white flour, 1/2 cup wheat flour, and have whole wheat pancakes!

Get rid of them Monday's!



Cloudy with more than a chance of meatballs

It actually IS cloudy!  And there is more than just a chance that I'm going to give you a meatball recipe!  I'm pretty excited that post title worked out so well.  It's the little things.

So yesterday, while I was making my pesto, I also decided to put the large mound of tomatoes to good use and whip up some homemade spaghetti sauce.  I basically wanted to spend Monday putting together these bases for other dishes.  Between pesto and spaghetti sauce, I can do pasta, pizza, spaghetti and meatballs, grilled chicken and veggies in pesto, eggplant Parmesan, the list goes on.  Dedicating one morning to making those two things, basically did all the menu planning for me.  Sweet! 

Homemade spaghetti sauce is something I recommend everyone try.  Especially right now while tomatoes are so delicious and ripe and perfect.  It's something you can freeze for those pink tomato months, also known as winter.  It takes a little while to cook, but doesn't require a lot of hands on time.  The smell is amazing and stays in your house for a good day in a half.  Which is pretty nice for me.  I'd much rather have my house smell like Little Italy than diapers, is all I'm sayin. 

Tomato Basil Spaghetti Sauce

- 8-10 medium ripe tomatoes

- 3 tblsp olive oil

- 1 onion, chopped

- 1 bell pepper, chopped

- 4 cloves of minced garlic

- 2 carrots, chopped

- 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

- 1/4 tsp oregano

- 1/4 cup red wine

- 1 bay leaf

- 2 stalks of celery

- 2 tblsp tomato paste

Bring a large pot of water to boil.  Have a large bowl of ice water ready.  Place whole tomatoes in the boiling water and let sit for 1-2 minutes.  Remove with a slotted spoon and place immediately in ice water.  Let rest until cool enough to handle.  Remove the peel and squeeze out the seeds.  Chop  6-8 tomatoes and puree in a blender.  Chop the remaining tomatoes and set aside. 

In a large pot, over medium heat, cook garlic, onion, bell pepper, and carrots in olive oil until tender, about 5 minutes.  Pour in pureed tomatoes, chopped tomatoes, basil, oregano, and wine.  Place bay leaf and whole celery stalks in the pot.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low, and simmer for about 2 hours.  Stir in tomato paste and simmer for another hour.  Discard celery and bay leaf and serve.

Zucchini noodles are incredibly easy and delicious.  They get rid of those carbs you'd feel guilty about with regular pasta, they have a nice crunch to them, and they add such great color and flavor to the otherwise traditional spaghetti.  There are several ways to make these noodles.  You can use a vegetable peeler and get long ribbons of pasta, you could use a mandolin, a julienne peeler (which would be the best tool here...I don't have one, but if you do, go crazy with it!), or just cut the noodles with a knife, which is what I did. 

Zucchini Noodles

- 3-4 medium zucchini

- large pot of salted, boiling water

Bring salted water to a boil.  Cut zucchini lengthwise, into four parts, getting rid of the middle of the zucchini, where the seeds are.  Use a peeler, a mandolin, or a knife, to cut long noodles.  After noodles are prepared, drop in salted boiling water for 1-2 minutes and drain and serve.

For the chicken meatballs, I used the Martha method I talked about here to turn my chicken breast into ground chicken.  But you can use ground turkey or chicken already packaged from the store.  I just didn't have it, so I had to get creative.

Lean Chicken Parmesan Meatballs

- 1lb ground turkey or chicken

- 1 large egg

- 1/2 cup bread crumbs or panko (I used panko...cuz I love me some panko, dawg)

- 1/4 cup grated Parmesan

- 1 tsp garlic powder

- 2 tblsp chopped parsley

- 2 tblsp olive oil

Combine chicken, egg, bread crumbs, Parmesan, garlic, and parsley in a bowl.  Heat olive oil over medium heat in a non-stick skillet.  Once the oil is good and hot (when the oil gets fragrant), roll chicken mixture into golf ball sized balls and fry in the oil on all sides until cooked through.  Drain on a paper towel and serve.

Note:  This recipe will make 15 or so meatballs.  You can freeze the leftover meatballs on a parchment lined baking sheet and pull out a few anytime you want to make this dish.  Look at that.  I just gave you awesome leftovers.  You're welcome.

Pesto is the best-o

Yeah.  I just wrote "pesto is the best-o".  And I don't care how lame that makes me.  I've made my peace with it.

On Sunday's, our little group of four usually travels to Joe's parents or my parents house for the day.  Just some family time, usually spent running around outside, with food and stories about our week, always interrupted by the kids and their adorable antics.  This past Sunday we spent with my mom and dad in Batesville.  As I've mentioned, dad has gone vegan, so eating over there these days means we'll be getting our required vegetable and fruit intake for the day and then some.  It was a pour down rainy day all day so it was perfect for comfort food.  Dad whipped up this vegan spinach, basil, and walnut pesto with some summer veggies over pasta.  Dad always makes the best food.  And with one bite I let him know I'd be stealing that recipe for pesto and posting it on the blog.  I also told him I'd give him credit. This is dad's recipe.  There. 

This recipe calls for nutritional yeast.  I don't want to post recipes with ingredients I can't get in rural Mississippi.  And nutritional yeast is something you can't get anywhere around here.  For those who aren't so rural and have access to Whole Foods or Trader Joes, you can easily find it.  And for my fellow country folk, you can purchase nutritional yeast from Nuts dot com for $7/8oz bag.  I've purchased through Nuts.com and they are speedy and reliable, with super awesome packaging (which always gets my attention).  A little goes a long way, so I recommend starting with 8 ounces.  It's a powder that is used as thickener for soups, or can be added to sauces or other recipes for a cheesy flavor.  It sounds really weird, I know.  But just try it.  I'll give you the $7 if you want.

And, look, you can use Parmesan cheese instead. 

Let me just show you the picture of the pesto before you get too weirded out by nutritional yeast...

Fun Fact:  You might know this, you might not.  Dad was telling me he went with spinach in his pesto because he's trying to incorporate low calorie, high nutrient and vitamin enriched vegetables into his diet, more.  Spinach has 7 calories per cup.  Know how many carbs it has?  One.  A carb.  A cup of spinach has a carb in it.  Cray cray.

Anyway. So there's that.



Spinach Basil Walnut Pesto

- 4 cups spinach
- 1 cup basil
- 1/2 cup of walnuts
- 2 or 3 cloves of garlic minced
- 3 or 4 tablespoons of olive oil
- 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast (or 1/4 cup grated Parmesan)
- salt to taste

In a food processor or blender, pulse all of the ingredients until smooth.  Add more garlic and salt to your taste.

Store in a jar or air tight container.  Mix in with warm noodles and sauteed vegetables, coat chicken breasts in pesto and bake, or spread on flat bread for pizza. 

This pesto is creamy and garlicky and bright. It's a comfort food you'll never feel bad about.  Get your vitamin A, K, C, and B on!

Snack attack

I made some super tasty veggie burgers yesterday (recipe to come...I gotta tweak it a little) and I needed a side.  Fries are the obvious choice.  But darn it all if I didn't have a single potato in my house.  Not one!  There's a never ending list of fries made with every vegetable imaginable.  Green beans, eggplant, carrots, asparagus...seriously it goes on forever.  And when I found this recipe on A Cozy Kitchen, I almost started chewing on my laptop.  Which I think goes against everything the manual would tell you to do.  Don't chew on your puter.

So I will rarely do this, but I'm just going to share this recipe exactly as it is.  I try to come up with my own stuff or put my own spin on recipes, but this is so perfect that it would just be silly to change a thing.  Polenta Fries.  Insane.  Have you had polenta?  My mom used to make it all the time.  It's so incredibly simple.  It's just milk and cornmeal, heated and stirred in a pot until it's thick.  Mom used to use it in chili pie recipes.  You can cool the mixture though and it makes a little cake.  This is what you'll do for the polenta fries, along with baking them until golden and crispy. 

Get ready to chew on your computer.

Baked Polenta Fries

- 4 cups whole milk
- 1 cup water
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 2 1/4 cup cornmeal
-1/2 cup grated Parmesan
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt, and more for sprinkling
- 2 tablespoons olive oil

Spray non-stick cooking spray on a baking sheet (or casserole dish). Bring milk, 1 cup water and butter to boil in heavy large saucepan. Gradually whisk in cornmeal. Reduce heat to low and cook until polenta is very thick and starts to pull away from sides of pan, stirring often, about 8 minutes. Remove from heat.

Stir in cheese and salt. Add more salt if you like. Immediately transfer polenta to prepared baking sheet, spreading mixture to a 1-inch thickness. Mine filled up half of the baking sheet. No biggie. Wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate until cool and firm, about 1 hour. (You can totally do this a day ahead. Just be sure to cover and keep refrigerated.)

Cut polenta lengthwise in pan into three-inch-wide rectangles. Cut each rectangle crosswise into 3/4-inch-wide strips. Set polenta strips aside.

Preheat oven to 450F. Transfer polenta fries to lined baking sheet. Sprinkle with about a teaspoon of kosher salt and some olive oil. Bake for 20 minutes, flipping the fries at the 10 minute mark. Fries, when done, will be slightly golden brown at the edges

Recipe via A Cozy Kitchen


Visit A Cozy Kitchen for a recipe for Chili Lime Mayo to dip these suckers in.  Or just do what I did and hit that classic ketchup.  Yeah, man.

I wish Martha Stewart wanted to adopt an adult

Every month, I wait like a kid waiting for Santa, for my Martha Stewart magazine to arrive.  I don't get much mail.  I'm really painting a pathetic picture here.  I've been reading Martha Stewart since I was 15, when I subscribed to the magazine without my mom's permission via Publishers Clearing House.  If we'd won, she would've felt SO bad for punishing me...

A lot of Martha's recipes can be intimidating and I've made the comment before, that no matter how exact I am, there are certain recipes she puts in those magazines that NONE OF US will ever be able to pull off.  Ever.  That's how Martha wants it.  Where in the heck am I going to get banana leaves to wrap halibut in?  Why do you leave me shaking my fists at the sky when all I do is love you?! 

Ok.  Enough swim fan.

The issue I received yesterday had a recipe I knew I couldn't mess up. It was for a grilled pizza with cheesy corn, fresh tomatoes, and basil.  I ended up doing a few changes (I'm so brave!), including making my own flat bread for the pizza, rather than the suggested frozen pizza dough.  I made mini pizzas with the flat bread, about the size of a salad plate. I also did this in my kitchen rather than on the grill. I'm really excited about sharing this recipe because this is something that could easily be adapted into something you can freeze and pull out on those unexpected crazy nights.  It's something you can top anyway you really want, according to your picky eaters...or if you're the picky eater.  But please try it this way, just once.  Because OMG, dudes...

Martha didn't let me down.

We don't own a grill, which is kind of weird.  But I've found, between a stove top grill and some cast iron skillets, you can get a lot of what you're after with just those things. 

Flat Bread

- 1 pkg dry active yeast

- 1 tsp salt

- 1 cup unbleached all purpose flour

- 3/4 cup whole wheat flour

- 1 tblsp honey or agave

- 1 tblsp olive oil

- 3/4-1 cup water

In a bowl, mix yeast, salt, and flours.  Stir in honey and olive oil and then, in a slow steady stream, mix in water until a dough starts to form.  On a floured surface, kneed dough until smooth and elastic.  Place dough in a greased bowl and cover.  Let rise in a warm place until doubled, or about an hour.

Heat a stove top grill or cast iron skillet on medium heat.  Do not oil the grill or skillet.  Divide the risen dough into 4 balls.  Roll out to about a 1/8".  Grill each of the flat breads on each side for 1-2 minutes, or until cooked through and lightly browned.

You can freeze these if you aren't going to use them right away.  Just let thaw for about an hour and top with whatever you want!

Parmesan Roasted Corn, Tomato, and Basil Flat Bread Pizzas

- 1 1/2 cups corn, canned or from about 2 ears

- 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

- 1 clove of garlic, minced

- salt to taste

- 2 small tomatoes, sliced thin

- 4 to 6 oz mozzarella

- 1/2 cup fresh basil

In a dry cast iron skillet, cook corn over medium heat, stirring frequently until it starts to brown just a bit.  Remove from heat.  In a blender or food processor, pulse corn, Parmesan, garlic and salt until smooth with small chunks.

Preheat oven to 450.

Spread some of the corn mixture over each of the prepared flat breads. Top with mozzarella and tomatoes and a light sprinkle of salt.  Heat in the oven until the mozzarella is melted and the tomatoes are heated through, about 5-7 minutes.  Top with basil and serve.

Enjoy the crap out of it!

Melt my heart

I'm still on the never ending search to find delicious deserts for my allergy ridden niece.  I don't want to get carried away on vegan recipes on this blog, but at the same time, vegan recipes are so much fun to...invent.  I have a real pet peeve about diet or vegetarian or vegan foods, swearing they "taste just like the real thing".  It always seems like it takes a lot of weird chemical based ingredients to make those foods barely passable for brownies or hamburgers or whatever they're "supposed" to taste like.  And I think it's what sends people running whenever healthy, vegetarian or vegan foods come up.  It's just going to taste like weird imitation stuff.

Summer is the ultimate time to enjoy fruit.  I'm obsessed with blueberries, watermelon, kiwi, and peaches right now.  I eat them at least twice a day.  I can't stop.  But it doesn't stop the sugar monster that apparently lives in my person, to creep up and want something more than just raw fruit.  I don't want to anger it. 

Here, little monster.  Will this help?  I just want to make you happy...

Blueberry Lemon Honey Sherbet (ok, this is vegan...but it doesn't have to be)

- 1 cup frozen blueberries

- 2 tblsp lemon juice

- 1 6oz. container soy blueberry yogurt (available at Kroger.  Use regular vanilla yogurt or heavy cream if you're steering clear of the vegan thing.  If you use plain yogurt or cream, you might want to increase the honey by another tablespoon or two.)

- 2 tblsp honey

In a food processor or stand mixer (or, heck, in a metal or glass bowl with a hand mixer), combine ingredients until smooth and well mixed.  Freeze in a metal or glass bowl and cover tight with saran wrap.  After an hour, remove from freezer and mix well in your food processor or mixer.  Cover and freeze again.  Do this every hour for about 3-4 hours. 

I don't own an ice cream maker, but I'm bound and determined to get around all that.  I've learned over some extensive googling, that it can be done.  It just requires more work.  Basically, you're doing the churning, rather than the ice cream maker.  But if you're in the middle of nowhere and you need ice cream, like, NOW, uh, you'll churn like there's no tomorrow.  And it's worth it!

Brain Freeze!

Food coma

I need to make a note right now:  I should blog first, eat second.  I'm so full I can hardly move my fingers.  I feel like I just gained 5 pounds...in my fingers.  Mercy.

(Don't worry.  I gained zero pounds in my fingers.  It's all in my head.  You were worried.  Aren't you cute?)

My dad recently took on a new healthy diet in an effort to lose weight and ultimately alleviate pain from a recent knee surgery. Most if what he eats is completely vegan (there's that word again! Hang in there...) and it's already worked wonders.  I think he's dropped about 12-15 pounds in a month or so.  The best thing about the diet he's on is that it's less of a diet and more just an effort to be aware.  Not in quantity or portions, but what's in the food.  Eat healthy, but eat the hell out of it.

Today's lunch is brought to you by my dad's diet and some of the cool things he's taught me.  But again, this isn't diet food.  This is real food.  And it's real good.

You're looking at some lentil tacos made with homemade tortillas.  Homemade tortillas are one of my favorite new tricks dad's taught me while on his vegan adventure.  They're so delicious and INSANELY filling.  Seriously, try them.  See if I'm fibbing.  What's more, these homemade tortillas are made from corn masa and water.  That is it.  That's it!  See?  Now you have to make them. 

Note: Corn Masa can be found at most grocery stores.  For my local pals, I know that Kroger and Piggly Wiggly carry it.  You can generally find it in either the Hispanic section or the flour/baking section of the store.  It's about $3 for a large bag.

So let's start with the tortillias!  Andale!

Corn Tortillias



- 2 cups Corn Masa

- 1 1/2 cups water

- 1 tsp salt

Mix ingredients together in a large bowl until well combined.  The texture you're trying to achieve is something kind of play dough like.  A soft, smooth, wet, but not sticky, dough.  You should be able to roll it up into a ball.  If it's too wet, add more masa, or if it's too dry, add more water!  You can't mess it up. Let the dough rest, covered up, for about 30 minutes. 

Grab a ball of dough, about the size of golf ball, and roll it into a smooth ball.  On a parchment covered flat surface, give the ball of dough one little smoosh with the palm of your hand and cover with another piece of parchment paper.  Using something heavy, like a cast iron skillet, press down hard on the covered dough, making it flat as you can or like. 

Heat a large non-stick skillet or griddle over medium/high heat.  Cook the flattened tortillas on the dry skillet, for 1 minute on each side, or until it's as browned until you like it.  This is about you, after all.

Once tortilla is cooked on both sides, remove from heat and cover with a paper towel.  You can stack all of the tortillas on top of each other with a paper towel in between each.

This recipe makes about 8 medium sized tortillas.

And for the filling...

Lentil Tacos

- 1 cup of lentils

- 4 cups water

- 2 tblsp olive oil

- 2 tblsp chili powder

- 1 tsp garlic powder

- 1/2 tsp onion powder

- 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper

- 1/2 tsp oregano

- 3 tsp cumin

- 1 tsp paprika

- 1 tsp salt

- 1 tsp corn starch

- 1/2 cup water

- 1 avocado, sliced

- a handful of cherry tomatoes, quartered

- fresh cilantro

- lime

In a medium sized saucepan, heat water up to a boil.  Stir in lentils.  Reduce heat to a simmer and cook lentils, covered, for 10-12 minutes.  Remove from heat and drain. 

In a small bowl, mix chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, crushed red pepper, oregano, cumin, paprika, salt, and corn starch.    

In a non-stick skillet, heat 2 tblsp olive oil and add lentils.  Coat well in oil and add 1/2 cup of water.  Stir in spice mix.  Bring to a simmer and then cover and reduce heat to low, for about 3 minutes.  Remove from heat.

Fill a tortilla with a couple tablespoons of the lentil mixture and top with avocado, tomato, and a few cilantro leaves.  Squeeze a little bit of lime juice on top, fold it up like a taco, and eat up!

Thank heaven for cheesecake

I'm not even sure how to enter typing out this post because I feel like I need to be really careful about the word I'm about to use.  I don't want to deter any readers and as soon as I type this word, I might send a good few of you, off to a better world where this word was never spoken.  The word I mean to say is...vegan.  Hello?  Is anyone still there?

Before I lose what's left of my audience, let me just say a lot of why I've explored vegan cooking is because my sweet 9 year old niece, Courtney, has a severe allergy to milk and egg products.  She spent the whole first 18 months of her life sick as all get out because doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong with her.  She's a 9 year old who can't eat pizza, or kit kat bars, or buttered popcorn.  Which is actually kind of good in a healthy way, but all kids should get to junk out every now and then.  The thing about Courtney is, she never complains about it.  She doesn't seem to really mind.  She's so mature about it...while she dances on the coffee table.  I'm really proud of that girl.  Because if it were me I would full-on through myself on the floor like a toddler in the grocery store, screaming for a snickers.  For sure.

So, sweet Court, this post is for you!

Vegan No Bake Mini Cheesecakes

For the crust:

- 7 or 8 graham crackers (I like to use the cinnamon ones, just because they're yummy, but you can use plain or honey if you want)

- 2 tblsp sugar

- 1 tsp salt

- 4 tblsp coconut oil, melted

For the filling:

- 2, 12oz containers of Tofutti sour cream (this was at the Kroger in Batesville, in with all the healthy juices and tofu, next to the produce section)

- 3/4 cup sugar

-1 tsp vanilla extract

For the topping:

- 10 strawberries, sliced

- 2 tblsp sugar

- 2 or 3 graham cracker squares

Put graham crackers in a ziplock bag and seal.  With a rolling pin, roll over the crackers until they're finely ground.  Mix in a bowl with sugar and salt.  Add oil.  In a muffin pan (I used a silicone muffin pan because I found it helped pop these little cheesecakes out without damaging them at all.  But a metal pan is fine too), scoop graham cracker mixture into the bottom of each muffin cup.  Fill just over 1/3 of the way full and, using the back of a spoon, pack the graham crackers down.  Once all the cups are filled, put the muffin tin in the freezer and let set for about 10 minutes.

While crust is setting, whip together sour cream, sugar, and vanilla extract in a bowl with a whisk.  Remove pan from the freezer and fill cups to the top with the cheesecake filling.  Freeze for at least an hour before serving.

For the topping, slice strawberries and mix with sugar in a bowl.  Cover the bowl and let sit in the fridge for about 30 minutes.  Drizzle strawberry juice and strawberries over the top of the cheesecakes.  Crumble the graham cracker squares over the top of strawberries. 

Store cheesecakes in the freezer.  If there's any left over to store, that is.  And there wont be.

We got the beet

It's fourth of July week and in our family, that's a big deal.  My sister and brother in law come to town from Kentucky, my brother's girlfriend comes in from Chicago, there's a big get together at our cousin's house in Memphis - it's a to do.  But I love it.  Because it's also the week of my birthday.  So I get to be around all my favorite people for my birthday, which is all anyone can ask for. 

With the fourth happening on Wednesday, and everyone and their mama in town, planning a menu for the week is a lost cause.  So I'm just trying to go with really simple things based on what I've already got. 

While at my dad's house the other day, we got to talking about panini presses and that he'd seen a guy use a stove top grill and a cast iron skillet as a make shift press.  I've had that and the question "what am I going to do with those beets and beet greens from the farmers market?", dancing in my head since the weekend.  Here's what I did:

Deeeeeeeeeelightful.  This is just a quick homemade honey multi grain bread with beet greens and Gruyere cheese.  But its so good.  And a perfect summer bite because, despite the cheese, it's light. 

I couldn't wait to try the whole grill/skillet panini press wannabee trick.  Guess what?  It totally works.  Totes.

Boom!  Awesome.

So first, I threw together some bread.  Let me just stop you, because I know where your brain just went and I can feel your eyes rolling as I type.  Yes - I threw some bread together.  And YOU CAN TOO.  I promise, one successful round of bread that rises and smells amazing, and you'll have it down.  I love making bread in the summer too, because you can just put it outside, cover it, and let it rise.  It's the perfect temperature right now!  It's nice to say the temp is perfect for something.  It's kind of miserable for everything else...like living.

Delish.  It's worth it.

Honey Multi grain Bread

- 3/4 cup warm water

- 1 package of dry active yeast

- 1/4 cup honey

- 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

- 1 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour

- 2 tblsp olive oil

- 1 tsp salt

- 2 tblsp flax seed

- 2 tblsp poppy seed

- 2 tblsp sunflower seeds

Stir water, yeast, and honey in a large bowl and let rest for about 5 minutes until foamy.  Mix in olive oil, salt, 1/2 cup of wheat flour, 1/2 cup of white flour. Add flax, poppy, and sunflower seeds.  Add remaining flours, alternately, 2 or 3 tablespoons at a time, making sure each time that all the added flour is completely mixed in.   Do this until the dough starts to clean the sides of the bowl and forms a ball.  Knead several times on a floured surface until smooth.  Place dough in a greased bowl, cover with a dish towel, and put bowl in a warm place to rise for one hour.  Once dough has doubled, punch the dough down, knead a few turns, and then either grease a cookie sheet and form a loaf, or place dough in a bread pan.  Cover and let rise for another 45 minutes.  Preheat oven to 425 and cook bread for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.

Use this bread to make your favorite sandwich.  For my sandwich I rinsed the leaves from the beet stalks, sauteed them in a light drizzle of oil, grated some Gruyere, and grilled that sucker up!  Do this with Gruyere and apple, or mozzarella and spinach, add chicken or hummus or anything!  Snack worthy, lunch worthy, perfection.