Today

Nov. 15th, 2008 11:53 am
serenecooking: (veggies)
[personal profile] serenecooking
I started to call this entry "Day One", but that's just so fraught with all that diet nonsense, so never mind that. Today is just today, and that's perfect.

I went and got my blood drawn this morning. I'll do it again in a month or two and see how things change. Right now, I'm eating toast and apple slices, and drinking V-8. I can eat dry toast if I have tomato juice or V-8 handy; otherwise, I need something on it. My favorite low-fat bread spread is probably my not-hummus (recipe below the cut).

Today's food plan:

B: Toast, fruit, juice
L: Veggie salad with fat-free catalina dressing (bottled); roasted acorn squash
D: Boiled potatoes and chickpea gravy (recipe below the cut) -- I'll take photos of this, but it's not gonna be pretty. :-)
Snacks: Going to try popping popcorn in my popper without oil and see how it goes; cut-up veggies; fruit



Not-hummus

1/2 onion, minced
1-3 cloves minced garlic, to taste
1 bunch parsley, chopped
2 cups (or one can) cooked garbanzos
1/4 cup or so garbanzo cooking water (or the water from one can of beans)
juice of 1 lemon
salt to taste

Heat 2 tablespoons water in a pan and add onion. Cook onion on medium heat until translucent, adding a little more water if necessary to keep it from sticking. Add garlic and cook a minute more. Add parsley, stir, and take the pan off the heat. You just want the parsley to wilt. Now blend everything together with a food processor or blender, until still a little chunky.

Fat-free Chickpea Gravy

Basically, this is Isa Moskowitz's Punk Rock Chickpea Gravy without the fat, and with the seasonings streamlined.

makes about 3 cups

1/4 C all-purpose flour
Approximately 2 1/2 C water
1 medium sized onion, quartered and sliced thin
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 C cooked chickpeas, or 1 can, rinsed and drained

EITHER:

1 tsp. Costco no-salt organic seasoning

OR:
1/2 tsp of ground mustard powder
2 pinches ground cumin
2 pinches paprika
1 pinch dried rosemary
1 pinch dried thyme
1 pinch dried oregano
1 pinch dried coriander

3 Tbs soy sauce
juice of 1 lemon
1/4 C nutritional yeast

Mix the flour with 2 cups of water until the flour is mostly dissolved. Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add 1 tablespoon water and onion; cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally until the onions are browned. Add the garlic and saute for 2 minutes more. Add the chickpeas; use a potato masher to mash them -- you don't want to mash them into a paste, just make sure each one is broken up, although if there are a few whole ones left, that is okay. Add the herbs and spices, soy sauce, and lemon juice. Scrape the bottom of the pan to loosen any browned bits of onion. Lower heat and pour the flour mixture into the pan. Stir constantly until a thick gravy forms. Stir in the nutritional yeast. If it looks too thick and pasty, add more water and mix well. It may look like it doesn't want any more water added to it, but just keep mixing and it will loosen up. Keep warm until ready to serve.

popcorn

Date: 2008-11-15 08:45 pm (UTC)
jeliza: custom avatar by hexdraws (Default)
From: [personal profile] jeliza
I don't now if your popper will do popcorn sans oil, but your microwave surely will (I learned this from Alton Brown, mostly, though his method has some oil).
Just put the kernels in a brown paper bag, staple or tightly roll the top (1 staple in the microwave is not going to cause a problem) and nuke for about 2 minute (until the pops decrease in frequency.)

Re: popcorn

Date: 2008-11-15 09:39 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] serenejournal.livejournal.com
I don't have a microwave. :-)

My popper does fine with a half teaspoon of oil, so I assume it'll do okay without oil. Then again, I don't particularly love popcorn oil-free, so I may not bother. We'll see.

Re: popcorn

Date: 2008-11-16 06:23 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] pyrzqxgl.livejournal.com
I got so used to my air-popper's popcorn that other popcorn seems pretty strange.

(no subject)

Date: 2008-11-15 09:52 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] eeyore-grrl.livejournal.com
keep us informed on The Great Popcorn Question.

i don't have a popcorn maker, but i do wnat one. :( as for microwave we only use ours to heat my heating pad (https://naturecreation.com/cgi-bin/shop/commerce.cgi?product=Herb_Packs&pid=5) for aches or headaches.

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