Crock Pot Vietnamese Beef Bone Broth and Pho Recipe!

I never thought I'd make it this far with bone broths.  I had tried for years (without a crock pot/slow cooker) to re-create that amazing Pho broth you can only find at restaurants, with no success.  Finally, I did a little research, and looked into making bone broths in a crock pot, which for busy and chronically ill people like myself, is the only way you are going to have TIME to make a bone broth (unless you do not have a job, and you can tend to bone broths all day, which is LIKE a full-time job, so I have just learned).

Before we get to composing the artwork-from-scratch that is Pho, we must make a mean Vietnamese-style Beef Bone Broth first.  It looks like a lot of work, but if you have your ingredients nearby, and pots and pans out, there is nothing too complex about this.  I would also advise multi-tasking.  I will explain...

Ingredients for Vietnamese Beef Bone Broth:

• Approx 2 lbs of beef bones (it is more common to see beef bones packaged for this very purpose, but if you don't see this in the meat section at the grocery, just speak to the butcher.  They likely have a buncha bones they can bring out for you by request).
• 1 yellow onion, cut in quarters/or sixths.
• 1 medium claw of ginger (approx 3" long), sliced
• 2 cinnamon sticks (*this is very important to getting this stock tasting excellent)
• 3 whole star anise (*this is very important to getting this stock tasting excellent)
• 3-4 whole cloves
• 1 cardamom pod (sadly, I did not find cardamom at the grocery the day prior, it is preferable to have this, but I made this broth without, and it still turned out awesome- if you have it, use it!)
• 1 TBSP apple cider vinegar (to get the most outta the bones, more on this later)
• 2 TSP whole coriander seeds (I could not get this either, so I used ground coriander instead)
• 1 1/2 TBSP fish sauce
• 1 TSP sugar
• Approx 8-9 cups of water (this was the maximum amount that would fit in my crock pot!)

INSTRUCTIONS FOR MAKING THE BROTH:

The reason I failed countless times making particularly beef bone broths in the past is because I never took care of getting the 'random stuffs' that boil from the bones out of the water before making the soup, and would end up with 'goopy bone soup' that would go to waste.  

Get out a medium to large stock pot.  Throw the bones in.  Fill the pot up with water until the bones are entirely submerged in the water, and start a rolling boil- boil the bones hard for at least 10 minutes, until you see all the weird fatty bubbly stuff come to the surface.  Only then can you turn off the stove, and dump out that messed up not-broth water, and rinse off the bones a few times, placing them in the crock pot once they are status post boiling and cleaned off.

(pictured above is the boiling of the bones, and the 'goop' boiling to the surface you will be dumping out!)

(pictured above are the cleaned/boiled bones!)

While you have been doing this whole boiling-of-the-bones thing, you should toast those spices:

Take the coriander, cinnamon sticks, cloves, and star anise- put them in a small frying pan on low to low-medium heat and toast them to really bring out the flavors (takes a few minutes).  Once done, add these toasted spices into the crock pot along with the cleaned/boiled bones.

Once you have thrown the toasted spices into the crock pot, put a dab of cooking oil into the frying pan and add the cut up onion and ginger, making sure to cook them on low to low-medium heat until browned, and again, once done doing this, throw the browned/cooked onion and ginger into the crock pot as well.

Once you've got your boiled/cleaned bones, toasted spices, and browned/cooked ginger/onion in the crock pot, it is time to add the apple cider vinegar, to get as much out of those bones as possible, as well as then adding 8-9 cups of water (depending on size of crock pot/slow cooker), and then adding a TBSP to 1 1/2 TBSP of fish sauce, and 1 tsp sugar.

(pictured above is what this all looks like in the crock pot at the start of your broth-making session)

Try to do this either in the morning before work, or even better, prepare this late in the evening, and let the broth make itself in the crock pot overnight! Set the crock pot on the Low setting, and cook for at least 8 hrs.  I personally let mine cook for anywhere from 10-12 hrs.

(pictured above is what all of this looks like after 10-12 hrs of cooking on low setting in the crock pot)

Get out a large container in which to store the broth, and put a strainer over it.  Once the crock pot has cooled down enough for transfer, pour the crock pot broth mixture over the strainer to strain out all the stock bones/large whole spices/onion/ginger.   You will be left with the very fragrant Vietnamese Beef Bone Broth:

If you haven't run away yet, here is the easy add-on recipe for Pho.  The most important thing is making the broth right.  The second most important thing is merely having the ingredients you need/that can work to make this soup.

Ingredients For Making Pho:

• The stock you just made 
• Rice noodles (my personal favorite are Annie Chun's Brown Rice Maifun Noodles!)
• Meat/chicken or fish of some kind.  My biggest cheat here (since I rarely have time for anything) is to use Brat-Hans Spicy Cilantro Chicken Sausage, sliced up in place of flank steak- since all you need to do is heat it up in the broth and it does not require freezing flank steak and meticulously thinly slicing it.
• A plate of stuff for the Pho-plate including: A bunch of fresh cilantro, a bunch of preferably Thai Basil (or 'Holy Basil') though regular Basil will work here if that is all you have, fresh mung bean sprouts, hot green peppers/hot peppers, and some lime wedges.  On the side, feel free to also have Sriracha sauce, Hoisin sauce, and gluten-free Soy Sauce/Tamari if you want, as well as adding fish sauce to broth for taste as needed.

To Make Pho Out Of the Broth:

Take however much broth you need from the big batch (if not using it all at once), heat it up in a medium to large pot, and throw in the approximate amount of rice noodles you will need for the amount of servings you are cooking for (eye it, it is fine).  Bring the stock + noodles to a soft boil for approx 2-4 mins max, then just keep the heat at low; heat up the already-cooked/refrigerated spicy cilantro chicken sausage (or equivalent easy-to-add-to-soup meat source) by throwing it into the hot broth and noodles in the pot.  Meanwhile, prepare/arrange your Pho-stuff-plate:

And just like that, you have some home-made Pho from scratch!!  Enjoy!! :D

Ginger Syrup & Ginger Dairy-Free Latte Recipe

Ever since I went dairy-free, I've been missing out on ordering chai tea lattes in the mornings because most places do not have almond milk (only soy, which I also do not do).  I finally gave in and decided to make my own syrup using ginger, for its anti-inflammatory properties, but primarily to make a ginger latte with almond milk, to fill the hole in my heart where all the easily-ordered chai tea lattes used to be!

Ingredients for Ginger Syrup Recipe:

• 1-2 claws of fresh ginger (chopped, should equal 1 to 1 1/2 cups)
• 1 cup of organic turbinado raw cane sugar
• 1 1/2 cup of water

Instructions:

In a small to medium sauce pan, bring the water, chopped ginger and sugar to a soft boil, stir with a whisk to dissolve the sugar, and reduce that heat to a low simmer for anywhere from 40-50 minutes.

Once this is done, pour the mixture through a strainer with your syrup-container-of-choice underneath to catch only the syrup itself as you strain out the ginger pieces (I typically use a glass jar with a tight fitting lid/clasp-lid for storing this in the fridge, where it will last approximately a month).

Recipe for Ginger Dairy-Free Latte:

Warm up a cup of almond milk or any other milk alternative of choice, throw in a spoonful or two of the ginger syrup you just made, whisk together, and top with your favorite hot drink seasoning (cinnamon, a dash of turmeric, pumpkin spice seasoning, etc).

Traditional Chicken Bone Broth for the Crock Pot!

Getting a really bad case of mono (EBV) as a young adult taught me two things: (a) I am not invincible (this was an affliction for me during my final semester of undergraduate nursing school, and I barely scraped through) and (b) bone broths saved my life and helped me survive the acute viral infection.  Lets face it.  Autoimmune processes & viral infections particularly suck hard since there is such limited actual treatment for them.  Having suffered through a bunch of this, and now stuck with acute bronchitis atop an already taxed and hyper-vigilant self-destroying immune system, I have decided it is time to bring back my famous Chicken Bone Broth.  This is some traditional-level old-timey broth that will save you during viral times of woe.

Ingredients:

• 1-2 Cooked rotisserie chickens (I only used one, and got it ready-to-go for two reasons: a. chicken scraped off the bone is then ready to throw in the finished broth and b. I was sick and tired, and was looking to make a real broth in the most low-key way possible.)  One large rotisserie chicken has just under approx 1 lb. of chicken bones
• 1/2 Tbsp Apple cider vinegar (to get the most out of the bones, I use 1/2 TBSP for 1 lb. of chicken bones, and 1 TBSP for 2 lbs. of chicken bones, and so forth)
• 1 small turnip cut in half - optional, if you have it around, unpeeled!
• 1 small to medium parsnip cut in half- optional, if you have it around, unpeeled!
• 2 medium yellow onions cut in half or quarters with skin on- unpeeled!
• 1 Bay leaf
• A bunch of Dill
• A bunch of Parsley
• A bunch of Thyme
• 1-2 medium to large carrots cut in half- unpeeled!
• 1-2 medium to large celery stalks cut in half- may keep leaves on!
• 8-10 cups of water given size of your crock pot (I only had room for 1 rotisserie chicken-worth and 8-9 cups of water!)

Instructions:

First, pick off the cooked meat from the rotisserie chicken and put in a container to save for using for the soup later.  Pick off as much actual meat as you can, only leaving the carcass/skeleton/bones with some cartilage and fat/some skin on what was a whole rotisserie chicken.  Throw the carcass and non-chicken-meat bits n' bones into your crock pot.  Now, put the Apple cider vinegar over the bones to assure getting as much nutrition you can out of them.  Prepare the broth veggies/herbs as listed above (leave skins of the vegetables on- it is more nutritious, and makes this process 5,000 easier).  Put said veggies, herbs, and bay leaf into crock pot.  Pour in those 8-10 cups of water, based on what your crock pot can handle (I would also use more cups of water, 10-12 per se, for 2 lbs of chicken bones in a bigger crock pot, for instance).  Turn the crock pot on low, and cook on low for at least 12 hrs (this is particularly convenient for preparing in the evening before it cooks overnight, and you deal with it in the morning).

The chicken meat you picked off the carcass, to be put in the broth when ready:

The ingredients all together in the crock pot prior to cooking:

Once done cooking, use a large strainer over the collection container to strain the large veggies/carcass out as you collect your home made bone broth:

*If there is a lot of fat on top of the broth even after straining, refrigerate it for an hour or so, and take a spoon to lift/skim the obvious accumulated fat off of the broth*

Add that chicken meat back in, and any other cooked veggies (ie carrots/parsnips/herbs/etc) to the actual soup, or simply save the broth as it is- this will remain good in the fridge for a few days to a week, and will last longer in the freezer for up to several months!

*I add my salt and pepper in at the very last step to avoid over-salting the broth, and only adding what is necessary for one's particular taste!*

YAY! Now you have what it takes to stay healthy and/or get better!

Have fun and stay well! :D

Simple Onion-Ginger-Clove n' Honey Cough Syrup + Bourbon-based Cough Syrup Recipe!

I loathe over-the-counter cough syrups.  They remind me of acid rain, bad childhood memories of being ill, and what it might taste like to drink melted plastic merged blended with deconstructed magic markers.  That being said, I'm sick again, and went to the kitchen to try to solve my illness woes....

This simple cough syrup is ridiculously easy to make, and makes a great cough-syrup hot toddy when mixed with a good Bourbon and some lemon juice (for adults and at bedtime only- recipe below!).  

Ingredients for the Syrup Itself:

• 1 yellow onion 
• 1 red onion
• 2-3 "knob-fingers" of fresh ginger
• 2-3 TBSP of whole cloves
• Raw organic honey (you need enough to cover all of the ingredients in the pan so they are somewhat submerged in it, for me I used approx. 3/4ths of a 16 oz. container to make a big batch!)

Instructions:

Peel the onions, cut them into 4ths (chunks), cut 2-3 "knob-fingers" (I seriously don't know what else to call this, I'm sorry) off a big piece of ginger, and put these ingredients into a medium pan.

Throw in the whole cloves.  Cover all the ingredients with the raw organic honey, making sure the ingredients are mostly covered by the honey.  See pic below.

Turn on the stove, and simmer this pan of goodness for 20 minutes on low heat.  After that, once cooled a bit, pour the mixture into a mason jar/glass jar that seals tightly to maintain freshness, and store in the refrigerator, where it will last a few weeks, though it probably will not last that long since you and the household will consume it way faster than that!

(I threw in some extra cloves once it was all done, just because)

****SECRET ADDED BONUS RECIPE!!!!****

*THE BEST HOME-MADE COUGH SYRUP FOR COUGH SUPPRESSION AT BEDTIME*

Advice: Only use this if you are of drinking age/an adult (because you know, alcohol) and only use for bedtime (because if you are coughing up phlegm, you wanna get that stuff out, but only while you are awake.  If you do not suppress a bad cough, you will never get good sleep at a time you really need to rest and recuperate- so save the majority of your cough suppression meds/this concoction right before you are going to bed, and focus on expectorants (thinning the phlegm and getting it the heck out of you) for during the daytime.

Ingredients:

• 1 shot-worth of good high-quality Bourbon (Barenjager will also work, if you dig the flavor)
• 1-2 TBSP of the Onion-Ginger-Clove n' Honey Cough Syrup you just made (use less if you are using Barenjager, as that is actually honey-liquor itself)
• A squirt or two of lemon juice (fresh, or from the container- whatever you have around, whatever is easy- give yourself a break, you are sick making your own cough medicine!)

Instructions:

Mix all ingredients in a heat-safe mug/cup and warm in the microwave for 45 seconds or so.  Drink before bed.

Enjoy and stay well, everyone!!!  

Gluten-Free & Dairy-Free Lemon-Blueberry Muffins!

So... I ended up with way too many fresh fruits/veggies recently, forgetting that Dom was going to be out of town for just about a week, and realizing that cooking-for-one is difficult!  I looked at the counter, saw a TON of lemons, and a bunch of blueberries, and realized that something had to be done before all this goes to waste.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup brown rice flour
• 1/2 cup tapioca starch
• 1/2 ground flaxseed meal
• 1/2 cup almond flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• a pinch of salt
• 1 cup good quality cane sugar (I used just cane sugar, you can also do 1/2 cane sugar, 1/2 light brown sugar)
• lemon zest (from 1 to 1 1/2 lemons-worth)
• fresh lemon juice (I used the juice from 3 whole lemons for this recipe, you could probably get away with either a little more or a little less, or experiment with lemon extract if you have it laying around)
• 1 to 1 1/2 cup of fresh blueberries (frozen can work too)
• A splash of vanilla extract (ie 1 tsp-ish of vanilla extract...again, you could experiment with extracts here: almond, lemon, orange, vanilla, etc)
• 3 large eggs
• non-stick baking spray for the muffin tin

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Spray muffin baking tin with non-stick baking spray of choice.  If you have muffin wrappers, awesome (I keep forgetting to pick them up at the store, so the wrapper-less method works too!).  Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl, and mix the wet ingredients in another bowl, whisk the eggs well into the wet ingredient bowl; pour the wet mix into the dry mix, and mix together until you get a uniform consistency.  Carefully pour equal amounts of the mixture into each muffin-holder of the baking pan, approx 3/4ths of the way up in each one.  Bake for 22-25 mins; per my oven, 23 minutes was the perfect time.

Have fun and hope you enjoy this one! :D

I ATE CRICKET FLOUR TODAY!: A REVIEW OF EXO BARS!

Lets take a step back for a minute, and go back to my childhood.  I was scared of most insects and bugs since probably birth, and would have never considered consuming this completely-ground-up-n-powdered Fear in Flour Form (which on a side note, should be the name of my Vaudeville Beatles cover band).  The idea of consuming a cricket or grasshopper-type creature never came back to torment the 'science vs psyche' aspect of my mind until Dom (my boyfriend) and I went to San Francisco 2 years ago, and the ONE NIGHT we could have had a cool date at the California Academy of Science, the NightLife Event promoted at that time was basically all about eating fancy cuisine for the insectivore in all of us.  At that time, the description made me cry, and it sounded like the worst date idea ever.  Needless to say, Dom and I did not attend, and if I recall correctly, I think I almost threw up mid-sentence while describing the webpage description to Dom.  Looking back, I felt bad for not being able to get past the automatic stigma ingrained hardcore in my brain, and for not having the balls to go to this thing and be adventurous.

Lets return to right now.  I have become gluten-free, dairy-free, and for the most part, a lot of the recipes I make can be modified to a paleo-type diet, and focus on sources of protein.  This is where my fascination with cricket flour began.  I read about EXO bars (http://exoprotein.com/) and was immediately intrigued by the idea of eating a healthy protein/fiber/good-fat packed product that would make a great post-work-out treat and/or meal-bar.  I literally talked to myself out loud like a conversation of 1 but sounding like 2 complete strangers (the fight of a brain as a scientist vs. brain with an irrational fear) until I convinced myself to at least try the Peanut butter & Jelly flavored EXO bars.  I bought 2.  Earlier today I had to run 3.5K, workup my appetite for any food and water, and continue to talk myself into actually trying it.

I DID IT!!!!!

GOOD NEWS EVERYONE!!!!

EXO Bars- at least the Peanut Butter & Jelly flavor- I found to be exceptionally good!  I did not see any component of insectoid matter, since although each bar is made with 25 crickets, it is made from cricket FLOUR.  I got so excited, I saved some for Dom to try later.  I really am impressed with the use of crickets in this recipe, and the fact that it is in no way gross, and tastes great- even better than some very famous protein bars that have been around forever, and have much less to offer.  The bad part: for now, the idea of insect agriculture is promising, but pricey, given it is a very new/controversial-due-to-stigma idea, with very few actual buyers to revolutionize the process.  Hopefully one day, this idea will be developed in a cost-effective manner, that on a larger scale, will be cleaner, greener agriculture, and a great way to fight hunger.  The other warning is that it is known those who have allergies to Shellfish should avoid any insectivore cuisine, as there is known cross-reactivity.  

I recommend EXO Bars for anyone that wants to try a bug-based flour for the first time, and is like me: Terrified of the idea itself.  I still cannot consume an insect-in-its-true-form knowingly (yet).  You must grind it up, and hide all characteristics in the form of a flour.  I still am proud of myself for overcoming a HUGE psychological wall today!  

I hope to find the strength within myself to delve into using high-quality cricket flour into creative and delicious baking recipes in the future!

Gluten-Free & Dairy-Free Pumpkin Spice Muffins!

After experimenting with a few different gluten-free flours, I got a combination that works out great for these!

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup brown rice flour (Bob's Red Mill makes excellent alternatives to traditional flours!)
• 1/2 cup tapioca starch (arrowroot starch would work here instead)
• 1/2 cup almond flour 
• approx. 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cup of pureed pumpkin (if you have fresh, go for it! I ended up using a whole 15 oz. can of Libby's Brand Canned Pumpkin)
• 2 eggs (or 2 TBSP Ground Flaxseed + 6 TBSP hot water, or vegan egg replacer)
• 2 tsp Pumpkin Pie seasoning (or 1/2 tsp of cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg respectively- for a more intense flavor, add a tiny bit of cardamom!)
• up to 1/2 cup of melted non-dairy butter (my personal favorite is Earth Balance 'Butter' that is both soy and dairy-free)
• approx. 3/4 cup raw organic honey 
• 1/4 cup cold water
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• approx 1 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp salt
• non-stick cooking spray
• halved or chopped walnuts, for garnish (optional)

Instructions: 

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees; spray 12-count muffin baking tin with the non-stick cooking spray.  

Mix together your flours, pureed pumpkin, eggs or egg replacer(s), spices, salt, baking soda, baking powder, honey, melted butter, and water together in a big mixing bowl- make sure you mix this well until you have uniform consistency throughout.  Pour into each muffin cup of the baking tin to assure each muffin cup is filled approx 3/4ths the way.  Put a few walnut pieces on top of each muffin-to-be.

Once oven preheated to 325 degrees, bake for approx. 40-45; the perfect time for me was 42 minutes.

From the baking batter into muffins 42 minutes later.......

These are delicious, and will go fast!  Next time I will be making a double-batch! :D Enjoy!!

Stir-Fry Thai Rice Noodles with Chicken Sausage & Vegetables in a Cilantro Chili Sauce

This is way easier than it sounds, I swear it!  Get out your wok, and get ready!
Let me just say, amidst insane amounts of allergic response to Ragweed this time of year, I am all about cooking ANYTHING that contains particularly fresh Thai Basil (AKA 'Holy Basil') which is well-known for its intrinsic anti-histimine properties!

Ingredients:

• 1 bunch of green onions, chopped- reserve some fresh green onions for garnish
• Chicken Sausage, chopped into semi-ovals- go for already-cooked sausage to make this even faster to make (personal favorite for this recipe is a spicy cilantro lime chicken sausage; any spicy variety will work as well)
• 1 package Rice Noodles (I use brown rice noodles in this recipe for the nutrition benefits)
• Dried red pepper flakes (to taste)
• A tiny splash of high quality fish sauce (Do not run away and be frightened.  This is your flavorful salt, people! Use this IN PLACE of salt! Use sparingly- a little goes a freakin' long way, and it adds an amazing amount of authentic character to this dish!)
• A tiny splash of gluten-free (wheat-free) Soy sauce/Tamari (ALSO IN PLACE OF SALT, please don't die, use sparingly!)
• A swirl of Toasted Sesame oil
• assorted hot peppers from the garden, chopped,  if you got 'em (not necessary to make this, however, totally optional)
• Canola oil (for the wok)
• Either Fresh OR Dried Thai Basil (AKA 'Holy Basil')- either will work fine.
• 1 medium Napa cabbage, chopped
• mint-cilantro or cilantro-chili sauce (to taste, Bandar makes a good one)
• 2-3 fresh garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 large egg
• lime juice- optional

Instructions:

Soak the rice noodles for 7-8 mins in hot water in a bowl or pot, while preparing the wok- pour some canola oil in the bottom, and turn the stove on medium heat.

Add green onion, garlic, peppers if you have them, and chopped napa cabbage to the wok- cook it until it appears tender.  Throw in the already-fully cooked chopped up chicken sausage, heat it up in the wok.  Crack open an egg, and add to the wok mix- scramble it into the stir fry.  Quickly drain the water from the almost-cooked rice noodles in the bowl or pot, and add the rice noodles to the wok for their final stage of cooking.  Add that *tiny splash* of fish sauce, and that *tiny splash* of gluten-free soy sauce/tamari.  Stir/fold in.  Add a bunch of chopped or dried flakes of Thai Basil, fold it in.  Add as much crushed red pepper flakes as you want.  Add that swirl of toasted sesame oil- mix it all in well.  Add in cilantro-chili or chili sauce, and make sure the wok-mix is consistent.   

Hope you enjoy! Let me know if you made any awesome substitutions, and how it turned out!  Stir fry dishes are super-flexible and fantastic for using fresh vegetables that you really do not know what else to do with! 

Gluten-Free & Dairy-Free Raspberry-Ginger Muffins!

Hello again! Sorry it has been a hot minute since I've posted some recipes.  I would like to give a shout-out to Relay Foods for providing me with a much better method of shopping for local/organic/special-diet groceries (by making my shopping list online ahead of time) and then picking it up weekly from one of their many grocery-pick-up locations!  For this recipe, I used fresh raspberries from a local farm (obtained through their website), which I am really excited about!

Ingredients:

• 1 and 1/2 cups of gluten-free flour (gluten-free flour composed of primarily chickpea flour will likely hold its form better and be closer to the consistency of 'regular muffins', though I used a uber-generic 'gluten-free flour' (composed of several non-wheat elements: potato/tapioca/rice etc) and it worked out FINE.  Do what is easy!
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 egg (or if you cannot do eggs, use 'the equivalent of 1 egg' substance here instead)
• 1/2 cup non-dairy milk (my personal favorite for this is Vanilla Almond Milk)
• 1 cup of either packed light brown sugar or regular 'ol white sugar (either will work)
• a pinch of Kosher salt
• 1 to 1 and 1/2 cups of fresh raspberries (frozen also work, but fresh is the best)
• 1/2 to 1 tsp finely grated fresh ginger
• Non-stick Baking spray for the pan.

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Spray a 12-muffin baking tin with the non-stick baking spray.  If you forgot where you left the muffin wrappers, it'll work out without them (this just happened to me).  Don't let this stop you!

Now, in a medium mixing bowl, combine the gluten-free flour, baking powder, egg (or replacement), non-dairy milk, sugar, salt, raspberries, and ginger, mix together until the consistency makes sense and is fairly uniform.

Pour the mix into the muffin baking tin one at a time: for more compact muffins that won't raise tops out of control, just make sure the mix in each muffin-cast fills it at least half-way to three-quarters of the way for good measure...

Once the oven has sufficiently pre-heated to 350 degrees, Bake the muffins at 350 degrees for approximately 23-24 minutes.  Once done baking, take out, insert a baking test stick into each once to assure they are actually done, and let them cool for at least 5 minutes before attempting transfer.

*I garnished the muffins with some raw turbinado sugar (once they were done baking) for fun.  You can seriously garnish with anything you would like- candied ginger, fresh berries, etc.*

Hope you Enjoy! :D

Dashi!

Still having little to no time to actually get fancy with my cooking skills, I am posting this SUPER-EASY soup broth recipe!  Dashi is Japanese sea stock, a common base for miso and other soups, and is both delicious and healthy.  Do not be scared to use kombu or bonito flakes- I promise it will all turn out fine!

Ingredients:

• 5 cups water
• Kombu (edible seaweed vegetable); approx an 1"x8" long "stick" of kombu, or the rough equivalent of this amount
• 1/2 cup dried bonito flakes
• green onion (as little or as much as you desire)
• shittake mushrooms (optional)

First, soak the kombu in your 5 cups of water for approx 10-15 mins.  I threw a shiitake cap and a few green onions in there as well for good measure.

After the kombu has it's soak, turn on the stove, heat the water n' kombu combo until just-about boiling; you should see bubbles forming on the sides of the pot, and right before it actually boils.......

....Turn off the stove, let it simmer on its own, just sitting there.  This is ridiculously easy.

Add the 1/2 cup of dried bonito flakes over the surface, and let the bonito flakes hang out here for another 5-7 minutes.

Once that time has passed, take the pot of broth and pour into a strainer lined either with cheesecloth (or a large coffee filter) with a container underneath to catch the Dashi!

(In the pic below I added extra green onions and shiitake mushrooms to the broth as soon as it was strained and ready)

You did it! Congratulations!  Eat it now, or put it in the fridge- where it will keep for 1 week, or in the freezer, where it will last a lot longer.

Feel free to: add this as the base to any and every soup, add a dash of tamari or sesame oil, add seaweed/sesame seeds, add brown rice crackers, throw it on top of noodles or rice...you get the idea.  Do your thing.  Make it yours!

The Leftovers Soup

I'll start by saying that this is less of an exact recipe, and more of an overall concept for those of us with 10 minutes to prepare dinner sometimes with limited options and some scattered leftovers from earlier in the week- 'The Leftovers Soup'.  This week quickly got ahead of me and totally insane, between working full time as a nurse practitioner, co-composing an original rock opera, and being on-call in the evening after work!
Just when I thought I was out of cooking ideas/out of food completely and getting a little desperate, I came up with an idea:

To take everything I have made this week and combine it into a SOUP.
This may be why soups are so flexible.  They are one of the few things you can almost always use leftovers for, whether it be for the main component/broth of the soup, or for mere flavoring.

What I made this week:
*Dashi: Traditional Japanese Sea Broth (takes like 15-20 mins to make, not to shabby)
*Saffron brown basmati rice (the rice cooker cooked it for me, any rice will work here)
*Hard-boiled eggs (I make a dozen of hard-boiled eggs before the start of every week on Sundays)

Basic idea here: Take whatever awesome homemade broth you hopefully have.  Pour into bowl with the rice you already have made, cut up a hardboiled egg, layer on top, season as you desire, heat it up however you like (in a big pot, or if you have 2-3 minutes before on-call starts, microwave it).

Extras: Bacon.  I cooked 2 strips of bacon super-quick, chopped them up, added to the soup.

This is quick and easy (if you keep up with the broth, rice-makin and having hardboiled eggs around!)
and is gluten-free, dairy-free & low in acidity!  :D

Oshinko!

Hello All! This is my very first cooking blog post about creative cooking/food preparation, specializing on unique meals for challenging dietary needs/chronic health conditions.  While I myself am cursed with interstitial cystitis (a disease I would not wish on my worst nemesis), chronic allergies, and IBS, it has been a blessing in terms of leveling up my cooking skills dramatically (as the list of what I could tolerate eating was getting seemingly smaller and smaller!).  At current, I am gluten-free, low-acidity, and now dairy-free.  Too many hyphens, if you ask me, and a challenge in terms of a. What to eat? b. How can I make the limited foods I can eat NOT suck?

The other day, I was craving something acidic.  We all crave things we cannot have.  It wasn't worth getting an ulcer to fulfill this craving, so I did some research to find a less-acidic, milder-yet-still-awesome form of pickling.

Oshinko= authentic Japanese pressed pickles.  There are a wide variety of recipes, some more difficult to make successfully than others.  I will give you guys the easy version for starters.  The first pic is the set-up for the 2-3 day period it takes to pickle the vegetables:

Ingredients & Preparation: 

• 1 c radishes (just the radishes themselves, no stem/leaves/stuff)
• 1 c English cucumber or mini cucumbers work as well
• 4 TBP good-quality salt (non-iodized!)
• 2-3 TBP rice wine vinegar (realize that you can make them milder/stronger...)
• optional 1-2 TBP of vermouth/very dry white wine/or keep it real with some sake
• sesame seeds (to garnish with)

• Cut thin slices of the washed radishes and cucumbers, put them in a wide circular glass bowl
• Add the salt, rice wine vinegar, and optional vermouth/dry white wine/and/or sake
• Mix it together well to make sure the vegetables are all covered in the simple brine
• Cover the mix itself with plastic wrap
• Place a plate that fits just inside the glass bowl on top of the plastic-covered mix (it serves to press the mix down within the open glass bowl)
• Place something heavy on top of the plate/or lid (you can use a water-filled ziplock bag, a heavy bottle of water, a heavy can of beans, whatever will do the job) to start the pickling process.
• Every once in a while (that's vague, I did this 1-2 times a day) empty the fluid that accumulates from the glass bowl, once that is done, replace the lid/plate and heavy thing on top.
• In 2-3 days this Oshinko is ready to eat!! (you can eat it sooner, totally up to you); you can transfer to a glass jar/storage container, and add sesame seeds to the mix for garnish.
• If room temperature where you are is 80 degrees or over, you'll need to find a cooler place to pickle this stuff so it will not spoil! Once the 2-3 day period is up, and the Oshinko is ready, store in the fridge, and eat within 7-10 days.