How to cook rice

Here's how to cook rice. Recently, we got a rice cooker and that has definatly made life easier. Rice cookers do not boil over and that is true.

The ratio for rice is 2 water for 1 rice. That's what i've been using since i started cooking rice.
I boil the two cups of water and when that's boiling, i add in the one of rice. Let cook for 20 minutes. If you have a rice cooker, read the instructions, put in the rice and water and let it go. :) Make sure you use  the proportions that the rice cooker company has because they vary from machine to machine.

Blueberry Bran Muffins

1 1/2 c. wheat bran
1 c. milk
1/2 . apple sauce
1 egg replacer serving
2/3 c. brown suggar
1/2 t. vanilla extract
1/2 c. all purpose flour
1/2 c. whole wheat flour
1 t. b aking soda
1 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1 c blueberries

1. Set oven to 375 F. Grease muffin cups.  Mix bran and milk together in separate bowl. Let stand 10 minute.s
2. Mix apple sauce, egg, brown sugar and vanilla. Beat in bran mix. Sift in flours, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Fold in blueberries. Bake 15-20 minutes or until tops spring back when lightly touched.

Goes great for breakfasts with home made strawberry preserves.

Nutritional Info
 Calories 117.6
Total Fat 0.8 g
 Sat 0.1 g
 Poly 0.4 g
 Mono 0.1 g
Carb 32.2 g
Fiber 4.1
Sugar 17.7

Oat Bran Muffins

These muffins are some serious muffins and I'm not kidding when i say that. I mean really, these have carrots, bananas, walnuts and the whole deal! These are nice breakfast muffin and even though they have carrots in them, some low sugar home made jam goes really nice on them. :)

3/4 c. whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 c. oat bran
1 t. baking powder
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. baking sod
1/3 c. mashed banana
1/2 c. low fat - no fat yogurt
1 fake egg
1/4 c. apple sauce
1/2 t. vanilla
1/2 c carrot
1/2 c prunes, chopped
1/2 c. walntuts

Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Makes 12 muffins.

Nutritional Facts
Calories 101.6
Total Fat 3.8 g
 Sat 0.5 g.
 Poly 2.5 g
 Mono 0.5 g
Cholesterol 0.6 mg (won't have if you use soy yogurt)
Total Carbs 16.2
 Fiber 1.8
 Sugar 4.9 g
Protein 2.8 g

Au Natruale Peanut Butter

So obviously i am not French because i spelled natural horribly wrong but that was my try at it and I am very sorry. The picture at the beginning is of a peanut butter that i discovered a few years ago and it's like miracle peanut butter. So you see Skippy and Jif have a long list of ingredients. Here are the two...
Skippy: Skippy contains peanuts, listed as the first ingredient, followed by sugar and hydrogenated vegetable oils, including cottonseed, rapeseed and soybean oils, and salt.
Jif : MADE FROM ROASTED PEANUTS AND SUGAR, CONTAINS 2% OR LESS OF: MOLASSES, FULLY HYDROGENATED VEGETABLE OILS (RAPESEED AND SOYBEAN), MONO AND DIGLYCERIDES, SALT.

Well, i found Adam's Natural Peanut Butter and i was almost amazed on how the ingredient list went.  It was this - Ingredients : Peanuts (contains 1% or less of salt). Can you believe it???!?!?!!? No sugar, and no added oils! It tastes sooo good!!! Even comes in crunchy. :)It's sooooooooo natural! Here are the nutritional info

For 2 Tablespoons ( 32 grams)
200 Calories 150 from fat
16 g total fat
  2.5 saturated fat
  0 trans fat
  4.5 grams polyunsaturated
  3.5 grams monounsaturated
0 mg Cholesterol
105 mg sodium
6 carbs
  2 fiber
  1 g sugar
7g protein

That's pretty good. There is oil that gather's on the top and we pour off that oil and it works just fine. It takes off some of the fat and calories. But this is really amazing peanut butter. Almost as good as PB2 (a dried peanut powder)! It does still have oils and fats in it though.

Almond Butter

When you think of almond butter you usually think of that delicious brown stuff with chuncks of almonds mixed in and buttery like peanut butter. I love the brown almond butter. But here's a recipe for butter like substance.

1 c. blanched slivered almonds
1 1/4 c. water
3 T. cornstarch
1/2 t. salt

Blend all of these in a blender. Put in a small pot and bring to a boil to thicken. When thickened, pour into a desired container and refrigerate.

Almonaise

This can be used as a mayonaise subsitute
1/2 c. blanched almonds
1 c. water
1 T. lemon
1 T. vinegar
1 t. honey
1 t. salt
1/2 t. onion power
1/4 t. mustard powder
1 T. cornstarch
1/8 paprika

Blend all together in a blender and then boil in a small pot to thicken. 

Sunflower Chip Dip

This is a nice chip dip or use as sour cream for soups and stuff.

1/2 c. sunflower seeds (raw)
1/2 c. water
2 T. lemon juice
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. onion powder

blend all together. 

Banana Bread

This is the recipe for banana bread that I got from Dr. Deihl's cookbook The Optimal Diet. The Optimal Diet is one of my favorite cook books and I really enjoy using it. It has low calorie, low fat and heart healthy. It's everything that you want in one cookbook! It's really amazing! Here we go!

2 c. flour
1/4 c. walnuts
1/2 t. salt
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1/4 c. apple concentrate (water NOT added)
1/3 c. honey
1 1/4 c. mashed banana
1 egg (or fake egg)
1 t. lemon juice

1. preheat oven to 350 degrees faranheight
2. mix together the dry ingredients. Add the wet. Mix well.
3. Pour batter into a greased bread pan.
4. Bake for 50 minutes. Check with a toothpick or knife to make sure it's done and allow to cool before slicing. 

Pictures

So here's the deal with pictures. I am going to spend tonight and tomorrow taking pictures of all the things that i am going to put on here and the things that i have on here. I have lacked to put on pictures and I think that would be nice to have to make my blog better. Please bear with me. Thanks.

Peanut Butter Cucumbers

My friend from China came over a few years ago and shared this recipe with us. I really enjoy making it and it's a really nice cool dish. Really refreshing.

1 peeled cucumber
1/4 c smooth peanut butter
enough lemon to make it creamy.

Slice up the cucumber into fourths and then coins. Mix peanut butter with lemon until creamy and pour over cucumbers.

Hot Pot

Hot pot dipper baskets

So... what's hot pot you ask? It's a popular Chinese dish. The main idea of it is that you have piles and piles of food on plates all around the table and a crock pot/rice cooker/pot on a hot plate in the middle. Everyone has a little basket that they fill with food and then they let it heat in the "heater" in the middle. The heater contains a broth and then they can put the meat that they heated in a bowl and eat it. It's a really fun activity, fun to prepare and fun to eat. This is also nice because if you are a vegetarian, you can pick and choose what you put in it. I use a fake duck ...

and i also used some home made seitan (recipe here ) chopped up into small pieces.

Hot pot can consist of fast cooking vegetables and meats. Oh and mushrooms. Almost forgot. We had shiitakes, and this black edible fungus. This is what it looked like condensed.

I put it in a pot with some water and when i came back in an hour., it had filled my whole pot! We had a lot of that in the hot pot.
So remember to slice everything thinly. This is what you can put in yours. Make the ammounts according to the ammount of people you have. Hot pot is usually a party food.
The hot pot consists of two parts. The broth and then the things that you cook in it. The broth can have:
Water
Carrots
Daikon Raddish
Hot pot seasonings (look for at asian food markets)

Have that warming in your pot on a hot plate/ rice cooker/ hot pot cooker/whatever

Carrots in coins
Spinach leaves
Bok Choy
Fake duck
seitan
enoki
black edible fungus
noodles
shiitakes
sea foods
potatoes
green onions
tofu
mini dumplings

Be creative! Just besure to cut up your veggies so they can cook extra fast! Have fun and comment on how it went!

Oatmeal "buttermilk" bread

Oatmeal "Buttermilk" Bread
Makes 1 9x5 in loaf
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 cup boiling filtered water
1/4 cup warm filtered water
2 t. dried yeast
1 1/2 c milk with lemon juice
3 T. oil rest with apple sauce to make 1/2 cup
1/4 c brown sugar
1 cup coarse whole - wheat flour
3 1/2 cup unbleached all purpose flour
2 t. salt
1 spray bottle of water

Set asied 1/4 cup of rolled oats. Place the remaining 1 1/4 cup of oats in a medium bowl and cover with 1 cup of boiling water. Mix with a spoon to moisted all oats. Let bowl sit, uncovered for 10 minutes, stirring frequently while water is absorbed.
Place 1/4 cup warm water in the bowl of your stand mixer and sprinkle yeast on top. Mix with a whist to dissolve yeast. (if mixing by hand, combine warm water and yeast in a medim bowl and mix with a spoon or whisk). Let rest for 5 minutes. Add soaked oats, milk with lemon, oil and applesauce, brown sugar, whole wheat flour app purpose flour and salt. Mixing by hand - add soaked oats, buttermilk oil sugar, flours and salt mix with wooden spoon. Knead with your hands for 10-12 minutes. Dough will be wet at first but will eventually form a b all. Ball with have a satiny finish and will bounce back quicly when poked with a finger.
Place dough in an oiled metal bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Proof in a warm room 70-75 degrees for about an hour. Dough will almost double in size.
Pull dough from bowl and flatten with your hand releasing excess air bubbles. Form dough into desired shape and transfer onto pan. Let it proof in warm room 35-40 minutes. Loaf will rise. Preheat oven to 385 degrees. Remove plastic and mist top of loaf with a spray bottle of water. Sprinkle with remaining oats. Place pan on center rack and bake for approx 1 hour. Let cool in the pan on a wire rack for 30 minutes.

Got this recipe from my aunt. I made it and it turned out looking like sourdough (big holes) but it tasted much better than sour dog (no sour!!)

Nutritional Facts if divided into 25 pieces
calories  123.6
Total Fat 1.9g
 Sat 0.3 g
 Poly 0.5 g
 Mono 1.1 g
Total Carbs 26.6 g
 Fiber 1.8 g
Sugars 2.4 g
Protien 3.8 g

Skinny Sushi/Kimbap

So i was looking today for sushi/kimbap recipes and the serving size to calorie count was like WOW! In one there were 2207 calories! I couldn't see myself eating that many calories at one meal so i played around in the kitchen and made something that was so low calorie i couldn't believe it! Okay, so after I saw the counts on the commercial ones i was shocked to see my own. So first what i put in mine is carrot, pearl rice, spinach and tvp (or vegetarian burger) and then seaweed on the outside. That's what i used for mine. You can put avacado, cucumbers, and so many more items in yours.
Also people asked me what is the difference between sushi and kimbap. Kimbap is Korean and Sushi is Japanese. Also sushi is usually dipped in a dipping sauce and kimbap is seasoned enough that dipping sauce isn't needed. Kimbap is (for me) lower in calories and fat.
So let's get rolling. Some people suggest that you use a bamboo rolling mat to help but i don't use that.
So..... I'm not giving exact measurements because it's different every time you make it. So
I put

1.5 carrot
1 block spinach
1 "batch" pearl rice
1 c. tvp (vegetarian "meat")
1 egg (optional. I made a few with egg and a few without. I can't eat eggs either)

Put a sheet of nori out on the rolling mat or clean and DRY counter. Put the rice close to the middle, then put spinach, carrot, tvp and egg. Roll over one end over the rice and push the filling in. Roll up and you can use water along the edge of the nori (seaweed) to help it stick. I made like 5 rolls from this. I haven't tried freezing it so i will invite my friends over and have them eat if for me. :)
93.1 calories per roll
0.2g fat
36.2 mg sodium

Homemade Seitan

Seitan is another name for glueten. You can't search for gluten recipe because all you will get is gluten free. So seitan is the name for it. Here is my recipe. It's really fun to make since it will get very large when cooked.

1 c. gluten flour aka do-pep
1 T. flour
1 T. nutritional yeast
1 c. water
1 1/2 T. soy sauce

Boil 4 cup water with 1/4 c soy sauce. Mix dry add wet. I suggest that you use a fork to mix... DO NOT USE A WHISK it will be super messy! Cut them up into little pieces Boil in the water for 30 minutes.  

Salsa

Here we go with Theme and Variation on Salsa.
i usually have like 3-4 tomatoes that i wash core and cut up.

3-4 tomatoes
1/2 onion
2 garlic cloves
2 jalapeno peppers ( or to whatever degree of hotness you want)
1 T. lemon juice
1 anihiem chili pepper
1 banana pepper

Prepare the tomatoes, chili peppers and garlic. Mix all ingredients in bowl together. Feel free to put in a can of pineapple, or mangoes.

Waffles/Pancake

our vintage waffle maker!

Here is my recipe for waffles. we don't have a belgian waffle maker but i don't think the recipe would be any different

1/3 c corn flour
1/3 c oat bran
1/3 c brown rice flour
1/3 c barley flour
1/3 c whole wheat pastry flour
1/3 c whole wheat flour
1/4 t salt
1 T. sugar
1 T. baking powder
2 T. soy milk or milk powder
2 C. water
Mix Dry and then add wet. For waffles, in my waffle maker, it takes about one scant cup to fill the thing. Feel free to play around with the recipe and see what you find!

I also use this recipe for pancakes, i just scoop 1/4 cup on the griddle and fry.
Have fun waffling and pancakeing!

Corn Butter

I make corn butter as a substitute for real butter. I am a vegan (also lactose intolerant) and so here is what I use instead of butter!

Corn butter
1/4 c. cornmeal, dry
1 cup water
1/2 t. salt
1/2 c. water
1 T. nutritional yeast flakes
other seasonings (garlic, onion, mckays chicken, etc.)

1. simmer cornmeal in one cup water i na small pot on stove until soct and water is absorbed.
Blenderize hot cornmeal with remaining ingredients until very smooth. Pour mixture into a container. Cover and chill until firm.

It makes a really nice spread. It's cheap and easy to find the ingredients for.  I hope you enjoy. This is a half recipe by the way and this is a very easy recipe to double.

Garbanzo Spread

This Garbanzo Spread is a good way to get protein and is better than the plain old peanut butter and jelly for the lunches.
1 can garbanzos (15 oz)
1/2 small onion
1/4 can olives
pinch of garlic powder
Put garbanzos, onion, olives and garlic powder in a food processer/ ultimate chopper thing and blend until smooth.

12 servings
38 calories per serving

Low Cal Tomato Salad Dressing

This is a low calorie salad dressing that i use. It's really good.
1/2 c. tomato juice
2 T. Lemon juice
1 tsp onion
1 tsp dry parsley flakes
1/4 t. salt
1 tsp brewers or nutritional yeast
1/2 tsp celery salt
1/2 tsp dill
Combine all ingredients in a jar with a lid and shake well before using.

Mud/Sovex

This is a spread that my mom and grandma both make and is very low in calories and is nice on breakfast toast with cereal.
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 1/3 cup brewers or nutritional yeast
2/3 c. v8 or tomato juice
1/4 tsp garlic powder
 Bring soy sauce, water and tomato juice to a boil. Remove from heat and mix in brewers yeast and garlic powder.