Roasted Tomato Sauce-- the easy way!

ROASTED TOMATO SAUCE
This is a fragrant recipe with no peeling or seeding required! Use any shape or color of tomatoes.

10 pounds of tomatoes
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons dried mixed Italian herbsor 4 teaspoons chopped fresh herbs (basil, oregano and/or rosemary)
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon black pepper and/or 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tablespoon vinegar or lemon juice

1. Place oven rack high in the oven and preheat to 425 F.
2. Cut tomatoes into halves and spread in a single layer, skin sidedown in a shallow baking pan. If you use large, beef-steak types,cut into fourths instead of halves.
3. Drizzle on olive oil. Sprinkle on dried mixed Italian herbs orchopped fresh herbs. Sprinkle on salt sugar and black pepper and/orcrushed red pepper flakes. Spritz on three cloves of minced garlic.
4. Roast for about 90 minutes, until the slices have reduced downand the edges are slightly charred.
5. Scoop mixture into a blender or food processor (you may need to do this in batches) and process until somewhat smooth. Or if you have a food mill you can use that too. 
6. Add lemon juice or vinegar to mixture and reheat if necessary.Pour into hot (sterilized) pint canning jars, being sure to leave1/4-inch head space. Adjust lids and rings. Process in boiling waterbath for 35 minutes. Add time if you are at high altitude.

This is a recipe I got from a yahoo canning group (I apoligize as I don't remember the original posters name to give her credit) I use it often!  Don't alter the garlic amount in it as it will change the acid level making it unsafe to can in a waterbath canner.  You can add more upon opening the jar when you use it which is what I do.  This avoids all the cooking down of sauce that takes so long -- super easy!

  

Eat your Greens!

Did you know that most americans don't eat nearly enough green vegetables? I never did until I made a more conscious effort to eat them. We all probably know they have massive amounts of vitamins and minerals in them, add much needed fiber, and iron, and are a super food. I try my very hardest to eat 2 servings of something deep green every day. The health benefits are amazing and once you acquire a taste for them-- they really grow on you. So I thought I'd share a few of my favorite ways of eating them. Like most changes in our diets- once you learn a few good ways of preparing something it's fairly easy to add them to the normal rotation. Most greens can be fairly easily interchangable.. don't have spinach, use chard, no chard, try kale! And keep in mind too that other dark green vegetables have many of the same benefits that the dark leafy greens have-- things like broccoli, asparagus, green beans, and all kinds of cabbage are all terrific add ins if you just can't quite make the leap to leafy greens yet.


Braised Chard


Braising is simply a method of cooking something:

The idea is that you start off with a small amount of oil ( I use olive oil), in a large flat plan (skillet), add your ingredients to be braised, cook them for a short period of time and then add a small amount of water and a lid and steam them to finish cooking. My favorite way of braising chard involves a bit of wine as the liquid (I use a white wine, cause that is usually what I have on hand), and some red onion. The wonderful thing about Braising when done properly is that it leaves some texture in the greens, so you aren't eating squishy, slimy greens-- they still have some crunch to them and a much nicer mouth feel. One other thing about braising is that it can be done lightning fast! You could do spinach or other greens this same way too.


Here is the basic recipe:
1 bunch of fresh chard, stems removed and discarded and leaves chopped coarsely (2 inch squares?)
2 slices of red onion thinly sliced, or diced, whichever you prefer
1 T. olive oil
2-3 Tablespoon of cooking liquid ( this can be bone broth, wine, water)
salt and pepper to taste


In a skillet cook the olive oil till hot then add the red onion on medium low heat, once onion is mostly softened add chard and stir while cooking for about 2-3 minutes, Add liquid and salt and pepper, then put a lid on the chard and cook on low for about another 2-3 minutes.


Creamed Spinach

This one is a food network recipe I've taken and made my own. This was my gateway dish to greens...It is one of the first ways I learned to make spinach that appealed to the family and while it's more work that I usually like to spend on a side dish it makes a large batch so I usually make it into a few smaller containers and then freeze what I don't use that night for the family. *for best results freeze without baking and without the crunchy onions and to reheat- thaw, top with onions and then bake.

And if the crunchy french fried onions don't make the nutritional cut for you-- originally when I made it they did, but now that I've looked at the ingredients-ick! Hydrogenated oils, nasty sugars, etc... It's really good with a carmelized onion on top or roasted onion rings on top. To save dishes and a bit of work-carmelize the onion for the top first in the same skillet you use to start the recipe in , then set those onions aside till the end.

Oh -- and I never use the amount of chili flakes she calls for I think that 1/4tsp to 1/2 tsp is just fine!
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/sunny-anderson/creamed-spinach/index.html


Pasta with Chard


The folks over at Earthbound Farms have several recipes on their website for Chard -- but I've tried this one and know it's good. When we made it we left off the pine nuts (allergies) and added a pound of cooked italian deer sausage.

http://www.ebfarm.com/Recipes/recipeView.aspx?rID=282


Green Soup with Ginger

Heidi at 101 Cookbooks never fails to create something that is completely different and unique and yet tasty to boot!

I blended mine in the vitamix and I did remove some of the peices of ginger before doing so -- (In the past I've made soups using ginger chunks, they tasted fine when you ate them chunky, then once you blended that ginger up it was well-- nasty!) Allthough I don't think this one would be too strong if you left the ginger in it. I also made mine with beef bone broth instead of the vegetable broth as part of the bone broth challenge. I liked mine with a bit more lemon juice this morning and a drop or two of tamari. The ginger was soothing to my morning pregnant belly and I got my daily bone broth and my daily greens!!


http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/green-soup-with-ginger-recipe.html



Auryvedic Spinach with Red Onions, Shoyu and Balsamic Vinegar

A while ago in my boredom I checked out about a dozen cookbooks from the library and in one Auryvedic cookbook I found this great recipe for Spinach. It's nothing fancy the flavor combinations are so different and savory that I have to share it with you. It's so simple I didn't write down the recipe which is a shame because it was perfect.

Basically in a skillet you cook a handful of red onion, diced in a couple of T. of olive oil. Then add in as much spinach as will fill the large skillet, salt and pepper it lightly, and stir it until the spinach is lightly cooked but still has some decent texture. Then you add a tiny bit of shoyu or tamari or soy sauce if you don't have shoyu or tamari sauce, and the same amount of good balsamic vinegar, sprinkle with some coarse celtic sea salt and serve! It's truly one of my favorite ways of eating spinach.


speaking of Balsamic vinegar.... it pairs so nicely with spinach that I can't leave my favorite salad recipe out.

Spinach Salad with Balsamic Vinegar
The paragraph above the recipe for the Balsamic Vinagrette outlines my favorite spinach salad here:

http://laurablog72.blogspot.com/2011/01/2-salads-and-dressings-that-make-them.html

And of course there is

Kickin' Coconut Chicken Soup

http://laurablog72.blogspot.com/2009/03-kickin-coconut-chicken-soup.html

Green Chicken with Cheese

2 cups of cooked chicken ( I make huge batches of chopped, cooked chicken and keep them in the freezer for this and other recipes, so I always have them on hand.)

1 large bag of fresh spinach

1 1/2 cups of cheddar cheese

Grease a 9x13 baking dish with a little bit of olive oil, sprinkle the chicken on top, add the cheese to the top of that and bake in the oven at 350 degrees until the cheese is melted.

Green Smoothies

This isn't so much a recipe as it is one more way I get greens into my kids. I call them monster smoothies and at first when they are getting used to them I didn't use alot of spinach in them because to be honest I was a bit fearful of ruining a good thing! But I'm continually amazed at how much green stuff I can fit in these and still have them be palatable. If the color bothers you--get a dark colored cup and a lid so you or the kids don't see it-- you will never know the difference.

In mine I put whatever I can find in the fridge -veggie wise, zuchinni, cabbage, believe it or not lettuce works, carrots add sweet-but you need a pretty serious blender to really deal with them well, cucumbers, avacadoes-(good fats), a handful of spinach, kale, or chard, tomatoes and a peice of two of fruit- pears are great, berries are good, kiwi, banana, pineapple chunks, frozen or fresh, you get the idea. Then I add a little bit of liquid, usually coconut milk since I'm not currently eating dairy, you could add unsweetened plain yogurt or cows milk, or apple juice is usually what I have on hand. Then I add raw, fresh eggs- 1 or 2. Or some protien powder, a drop or three of stevia liquid, some Chia seeds, my vitamin D liquid, and some liquid trace minerals I have. Often times if I'm feeling super hungry that day I will add in some melted coconut oil too to this.
If you want to do just the veggies, fruit and juice or milk, that's fine too. The idea is to get the veggies into your body-- so I suggest start small, less veggies and work your way up as you get used to the idea of a green smoothie-- even though it normally doesn't taste like vegetables if you make it you know what is in it and I feel like when I first started doing it there was a bit of a learning curve with my mind telling me it didn't taste good -- or was weird, and really if I closed my eyes and forgot it had cabbage and spinach in it.. it tasted fine, it was a kind of a mind game. - sort of like eating liver-- I know I like it, when it's fixed in the many ways I like, but my brain still objects to eating something that is supposed to be yucky tasting.. weird what our cultural norms will do to our food tastes.

More experiments in sugar free canning!

Summer Solstice Preserves - (my way)

Every year I have a friend who emails me when her sour cherries are ready for picking. It's a good trade really -- I email her when I have iris bulbs to share- which is often, and she calls me to get cherries! In the past years I've canned up goodies with sugar in them- danish cherry sauce, summer solstice jam, canned pie filling & cherry jam. Since going on a low carb diet and almost completely removing sugar from our diet I have been a bit stumped as to what to do with my beloved sour cherries this year so my pitted cherries have patiently been waiting for me in bags in the freezer.

So I finally pulled a bag or two out of the freezer and made a stab at a sugar free version of my old favorite summer solstice jam. The original recipe is from Ball's Complete Book of Home Preserving and it calls for both blueberries and sour cherries with a hint of lemon. While my end result was a bit more sour than the original recipe - I think it's still quite passable. Instead of sugar I used primarily stevia- (my usual sweetener of choice), some xylitol, which takes the bitterness off the stevia and in the end I felt I had to add some sugar to get a good tasting end product. You'll see it was about a cup in the end, which spreads out over 8 half pint jars, meaning there is around 1/8 cup of sugar per jar. Hardly enough to count really. You could easily make this with honey, or other sweeteners, but I find honey changes the flavor of the end product which I wasn't willing to give on on this one. I was using pomona pectin which is now the only pectin I use -- so I was easily able to make a double batch, (not something I recommend using any other kind of pectin). And of course since pomona doesn't contain sugar, and doesn't require sugar to jell it is very forgiving for those that want to use other sweeteners! And now for the recipes -- below is the original, and my version. Like I said before - -I would prefer it a bit more sweet.

the original recipe is as follows:

Summer Solstice Preserves
Makes about five 8 ounce jars (when using less sugar your yields will be lower due to the lower amount of bulk in the pot)
3 cups halved pitted red tart cherries
1 cup blueberries
4 1/2 cup sugar
2 T. lemon juice
1 pouch of liquid pectin
2T. kirsch or cherry brandy


Summer Solstice Preserves My Way

Makes eight 8 ounce jars

6 cups of pitted red tart cherries
2 cups of blueberries
1 cup of sugar
4T. lemon juice
1/4 cup xylitol
4 tsp calcium water (this is part of the pomona pectin)
4 tsp pomona pectin powder
8 1/2 tiny tsp of KAL brand powdered stevia

Mix together everything but the sugar, xylitol and pectin powder in your jelly pan or large stockpot.
In a separate bowl mix together the sugar, xylitol, and pectin powder well.
Heat the pan of fruit until it is hot through and add the sugar and pectin mix, turn heat up and stir often and well until the mixture starts to jell. If you do the traditional test with a spoonful of syrup in the freezer --this will give you a good idea of whether you have cooked it enough or not. If it jells when cold, it is fine to pour or ladle into your hot prepared jelly jars.

* Note that if you were to make the original batch a double batch you would use 8 1/2 cups of sugar compared to my one cup!!
**I didn't add the kirsch or brandy as I'm pregnant and we didn't have any on hand but if you wanted to, you absolutely could, In the past I've added amaretto with good results as well. Almonds and cherries -- mmm.. a marriage made in heaven.

This recipe was particularly easy to convert as it was for 4 cups total of fruit, when converting to use pomona pectin use the ratio as listed on the included charts- for the type of fruit you are using, for example I was using primarily sour cherries which have a ratio of four cups of fruit to 2tsp of calcium powder, and 2tsp of pectin. If I were using peaches or other berries the ratios are different. When doubled that meant that 8 cups of fruit would require 4 tsp pectin and 4 tsp of calcium water. (calcium water is made from the calcium powder that is included in the box of pomona pectin by simply mixing water with the powder in the correct ratio and I store this in a small jar in my fridge.)

Oh -- and lesson learned, (blush) don't mix the pomona pectin powder into a small amount of liquid directly or it will stiffen up like jello and become lumpy and then you will need to put it into the blender to get it thoroughly incorporated before adding to your fruit. By the way you can do this -- it's just easier to mix it into a powder at first. It's easier to mix it into a dry product like xylitol or sugar.