SereneCooking

Just went through and added "LID" tags to a bunch of entries. You can find all my LID entries (all the ones I've tagged, anyway; I'll try to do them all soon) at http://serenecooking.livejournal.com/tag/lid

I admit it's a strange snack, but it's a yummy one: Frozen mango chunks with a little drizzled honey and a pinch of kosher salt. Yum.

[I really want a Linux client that will do tags. Anyone have one?]

Today was mostly a yummy food day. When I had breakfast, I was the only one up, so I had a salad of tomato, olive oil, salt (non-iodized, of course), and chunks of toasted white bread (again, LID bread). Very delicious. Lunch was some raw nuts, a banana, and a Lara bar, because we were out and about. The family had carnitas burritos, though, and I got envious, so on the way home, I stopped for a (HUGE!) pork roast, some salt-free corn tortillas, a bag of peeled garlic cloves, and some cilantro.

Pressure-cooked half the pork roast with a little water, a couple tablespoons of ancho chili powder, maybe a teaspoon of kosher salt, and probably around 50 whole cloves of garlic; I roasted the other half in the oven. I'll make garlic gravy out of the juices from the pressure cooker; I put the roasted half away for tomorrow.

Took the pressure-cooked half out of the cooker, shredded it with a fork, then put it back in the pot (without the lid on) and cooked it on medium with a little olive oil and kosher salt for about 20 minutes, stirring once in a while, until a lot of the edges were crispy.

Served in warmed tortillas with a couple sprigs of cilantro and nothing else.

Mmmmm, tacos de carnitas! Very decadent, yet very simple.

Today's food:

Breakfast: Two pieces of the pull-apart bread, for which I was SO grateful after my great-grandboss brought coffee cake to the staff meeting; orange juice; a few nuts

Lunch: Toast with honey mustard, bell peppers, and onions. More toast with very garlicky homemade hummus. Grape juice.

Dinner: Roasted a chicken over some potatoes, onions, carrots, and garlic cloves. Made gravy from the drippings. Mmmmmm, graaaaaaaavy!

Snack: Barbara's Shredded Wheat with cashew milk and sugar; a cup of jasmine pearl tea at Peet's; a little of the kid's mango drink, mainly because I could (I don't find that many packaged foods that are LID-friendly).

And speaking of packaged foods, it seems it's really just sweet stuff that's readily available, since everything savory has salt in it unless it's specifically a salt-free health-food version. Most especially, I've been drinking a LOT of juice, which I really love, but it's way more than I'm used to, and it's fairly expensive. So I bought myself a steel water bottle for work as a treat that says I ♥ Tap Water. I get a little kick out of it.

Caution: those little cubes of garlic that you can get at Costco or Trader Joe's in the freezer? They contain salt. I was disappointed to find this out, but luckily, loracs always has several garlic options to choose from. :-)

Today's food, so far:

Breakfast: Raw, unsalted nuts, orange juice, water

Lunch: Barley soup, a banana, water

For dinner, I'm going to roast a chicken and some veggies (potatoes/carrots/onions); also plan to sautee either spinach or zucchini (depending on what someotherguy picks up at the store) in garlic and olive oil and maybe some of my LID tomato sauce.

I have the energy to cook, even though I'm pretty tired, and that makes me happy. The three of us are working on keeping the kitchen clean, too. It helps that we bought disposable dishes and flatware just to get us through this low-energy time.

Well, day one went SUPER-easily, because loracs cooked for me! (Eat your hearts out; she's a *really* good cook.)

Yesterday's food (after breakfast, which I already talked about):

Lunch: Homemade pasta that loracs made (roughly tagliatelle in shape) tossed with olive oil, garlic, salt, and pepper

Snacks: raw, unsalted nuts (Costco has a great big tub of them for cheap -- macadamias, pecans, walnuts, almonds, and cashews); grape juice; sweet peppers; an apple

Dinner: loracs stewed some chicken in olive oil, tomatoes, and mushrooms, and served it with nuked potatoes and an excellent tossed salad (dressed with a red-wine-vinegar-and-oil dressing)

After I got home, I heated up some chickpea gravy I'd frozen earlier. Not bad.


Today's food

Breakfast: Raw nuts, an apple, and a pear

Lunch: I took the leftover chicken (and especially the stewed-tomato stuff) and poured it over some LID-friendly toast cubes. So good!

Snacks: Raw nuts, a banana

Dinner: I napped through our normal dinner time, so people fended for themselves. I'm about to make this pesto (without the cheese), and will probably eat it tossed with some whole-wheat spaghetti. I also want to roast the red peppers I bought today so I can make red-pepper hummus at some point, and I really should make some bread using the cashew pulp I accidentally defrosted when I thought I was defrosting cashew milk. :-)

1) Roasted Garlic Vinaigrette

2 T mashed roasted garlic
2 T balsamic vinegar
2 T mustard, any kind (homemade -- a few recipes for homemade mustard will follow in another post, if I remember)
1/4 cup water, or as much as you need for the consistency you like
salt and pepper to taste (optional -- I usually leave it out)

Mix it all together and pour it on salad.

2) Almond Dressing

3/4 c raw almonds
1/4 c nutritional yeast
1/3 c olive oil
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp each onion/garlic powder
2 1/4 c water

Blend well.

3) Fat-free Coleslaw

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
Dressing:
1/2 teaspoon salt -- optional
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
2 tablespoons sugar
1/3 cup white vinegar
Salad:
3 cups cabbage -- finely shredded or chopped
1 carrot -- grated

Whisk together the dressing ingredients, pour over salad in a large bowl,
toss, cover, and chill for 1 to 2 hours before serving.

4) Ginger Sesame Dressing

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
2 cloves garlic -- coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon fresh ginger -- coarsely chopped
3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons water
2 teaspoons sesame oil
3 tablespoons unsalted tahini
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Process garlic,ginger, rice wine vinegar, water, and sesame oil with
blender/food processor until well combined. Add tahini; pulse until
dressing appears thick. Add oil in a thin stream until dressing is
emulsified. You can add water, a tablespoon at a time, if the dressing
is too thick. Sometimes, I add a pinch of sugar to make it sweeter.

5) Tabouli

Adapted from the Moosewood Cookbook:

1 cup bulghar wheat
1 1/4 cups boiling water
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup FRESH lemon juice
1/4 cup good olive oil
*lots* of minced garlic (the recipe calls for 1 heaping tsp; I use
around 6 cloves or so)
1 tsp (or more) dried mint, or a small handful of fresh mint, chopped finely
freshly ground black pepper, optional
tomatoes, diced (the recipe calls for 2. I usually use 7 or 8 romas)
3 chopped green onions (including the green stems)
1 bunch parsley, chopped finely

Soak the wheat in the boiling water and salt for 15 to 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, mix the lemon juice, olive oil, garlic and mint. Pour this
mixture over the soaked wheat and mix thoroughly. Add the remaining
ingredients. Let this marinate in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours.

I think this gets better over the next couple of days. I usually use a
*lot* of garlic and a couple of teaspoonfuls of dried mint; the garlic
fades and the mint becomes more evident as the tabouli sits in the
refrigerator. The Moosewood recomments cooked chickpeas, coarsely grated
carrot, chopped green pepper, and chopped cucumber or summer squash as
additional veggies for the tabouli.

Food blogs are my pleasure reading. When I thought of turning to the food blogs for low-iodine recipes, the first thing I thought of was vegan blogs in general, and Susan V.'s Fatfree Vegan Kitchen (FFVK) in particular. The reason I thought vegan blogs would be a good idea is because, while they are usually soy-heavy (and the FFVK is no exception), they have no eggs, no milk, and no fish, all high-iodine foods. In addition, most recipes calling for soymilk are easily made with nut milk or rice milk, and soy sauce can usually be replaced with salt.

Here are some great ideas from Susan's blog, but I recommend poking through some of the other blogs at the bottom of this post and finding ideas for yourself.

Brown and Wild Rice with Asparagus

Tropical Sweet Potato Delight

Roasted Delicata Squash and Cauliflower with Curry Sauce

Pasta with Roasted Vegetables and White Bean Pesto (replace canned beans with home-cooked ones)

Other great vegan blogs:

Notes from the Vegan Feast Kitchen

Eat Air - A Vegan Food Log

Post Punk Kitchen Blog

Vegan Lunch Box

Those are just a few of my faves. You can find lots more on those blogs' lists of links.

Happy hunting!