What Is Left To Eat? -- a Food Journal by Laura Bracken

These are not part of a healthy whole-foods plant based diet.  They are, however, something I can make/have on occasion or for company.   I do use Miyoko's vegan butter in the recipe.  I will revisit this recipe and try it with water rather than vegan butter, but for now, this is it. Click here for a printable version of this recipe. Garlic Almond Crackers 1 cup almond pulp (the leftover stuff after you make almond milk) 3 tablespoons vegan butter 3 tablespoons water 1 tablespoon flax meal 1 tablespoon chia seed 1 teaspoon dried parsley 1 teaspoon onion powder ½ teaspoon garlic powder ½ teaspoon salt 5-6 garlic cloves smashed or minced Mix everything in a bowl and divide in half.  Roll half of it out between two piece of wax paper to about 1/8th of an inch.  The more evenly you can make the thickness, the less likely you will have some burnt and some raw crackers at the end. Remove the top wax paper, cut lightly with a sharp knife into cracker-sized pieces ...

Yeah, so everything in my blog is going to be gluten free, but I figure if I add it to the title it may help people find me who are using search engines. This was a super quick and easy (my food motto... healthy, quick, and easy) thing I whipped up for breakfast this morning.  Again, it was merely a case of looking around at what I had available. I'd just gone to Whole Foods and found these tortillas made from cassava flour.  Very cool.  A lot of gluten free foods have corn in them and since I'm avoiding corn for now, I love finding these other things I can try. My previous history with gluten free tortillas is they fall apart... VERY easily.  I bought these thinking I'd use them maybe for "taco night".  Didn't really have a plan yet, but then felt too lazy this morning even to make oatmeal so here's what I did... Gluten Free Banana Rolls 2 gluten free tortillas 2/3rds of a banana, sliced (I froze the rest for future smoo...

Rather than explaining some of these details in individual recipes, I'll try to describe my set up and methods here then I can just refer back to this post. My Recipes I honestly feel it takes longer to write (or read) my recipes than it does to make the food.  I am very serious about fast, easy cooking, and despite my narrative verbosity, you will see if you give the recipes a chance that almost anything I show you is a super fast, super easy, fairly healthy recipe. Organic You may notice that almost everything I eat is organic.  I know this is a hotly debated topic, but I'll explain my own reasonings.  While I know "organic" can still have pesticides, I'm hoping they are less or less toxic in most instances. Some people don't want to buy organic because the fruits and vegetables are often if not always smaller and more blemished.  That's fine by me.  First of all I grew up in the country (for the most part) so blemishes aren't something...

Quick Avocado Snack One avocado 3-4 ounces sheep feta 2 slices onion, chopped Ground black pepper Rice cakes Mash the avocado and feta in a bowl. Add the chopped onion and some pepper to taste. Spread on rice crackers. Easy peasy and full of fat and protein to keep you going for awhile. This avocado spread/dip is equally good on cucumbers, or with rice cakes and cucumbers, or as a dip for chips. Sometimes I make garlic toast for it. More comments means I post more recipes, so feel free.  Thanks! Click here for the index to my food blog Click here to see the sources for my commonly used products Have a recipe you’d like me to try out?   Let me know in comments.   So long as it’s gluten free, sugar free, yeast free, and corn free… I’ll have a look.  When leaving a comment, you may need to use the pull-down to change the selection from "Google Account" to "Name/URL" or "Anonymous"  Thanks!

It has come to my attention that I will have to start making my own broths (veggie, beef and perhaps chicken).  I get that companies want to keep their recipes secret (proprietary info) but that doesn't help those of us trying to steer clear of some very specific foods.  We need very specific labels. I was in Sprouts earlier this week shopping for beef broth.  The only two options were these (all the others actually stated either "sugar" or "yeast" in the ingredients). Upon further inspection, they do indeed have sugar ("organic caramel coloring").  And also worrisome is the ambiguous "flavor".  Flavor is not an ingredient.  Ha ha ha!   So I called Sprouts corporate headquarters.  They said they can't give me the list of ingredients since it's proprietary.  I said I understand, and would they tell me if the list of ingredients included either "corn" or "yeast". She said it does say "no co...

Tuna Salad One thing I like to strive for is a daily diet that is 50% raw.  This cucumber/tomato based salad has a healthy portion of raw to it. A can (5 oz) of line-caught tuna ( Wild Planet ) Mayo (avocado oil, no sugar... thanks  Primal Kitchen !) A healthy squirt of organic Dijon mustard Three slices of organic onion, minced ~1 Tbl of organic dried or freeze dried dill weed A large organic cucumber (chopped) ½ pint of organic cherry tomatoes cut in half 1-2 Tbl of  Laura's vinaigrette   (optional) Kalamata olives This sounds like a lot of ingredients but these are pretty much staples in my kitchen. I like to mix up the first five ingredients and then add the rest and mix.  This is good for two meals.  You can stretch it further by adding a can of organic pinto (or other) beans.  I may do that with my dinner half.  Sometimes I throw in kalamata olives too. ...

Actually, I'm not sure what to call this one.  It seems to plain/simple to be referred to as soup and yet it has chunks of salmon in it so I don't feel I can refer to it as a broth. I wanted something for lunch and the idea of a cold salad didn't appeal to me.  My body wanted something warm, so I decided to try to elevate my version of miso broth into a meal instead of the appetizer it usually is. Salmon Miso Soup 4 oz wild caught salmon fillet 1-2 Tbls organic extra virgin olive oil 2 Tbls  organic coconut aminos A shake of organic garlic powder A pinch of salt A couple twists of pepper from the grinder 4 cups of  organic vegetable broth A heaping Tbls of  organic miso paste  (I love that I can get organic soy free miso!) I take a 3 qt copper bottom steel pan (love my  Revereware ) and put the olive oil in and turn it to high.  While it's heating I take a 4oz fillet from the freezer, open the wrapper and when the oil is hot I...

Sorry, no photos this time.  I'll add them as soon as I can. I used to refer to marinara sauce that had ground beef in it as a Bolognese sauce, but I don't think that's correct.  If I'm not mistaken, a Bolognese sauce takes hours to create and has other ingredients in it like celery, carrots, etc.  Therefore I'm going to refer to my sauce as merely marinara with meat. We were looking for bison (or buffalo) but they didn't have any grass fed so we got beef instead. We decided on this easy dinner after finding a jar of marinara sauce at the Sacramento Natural Food Co-op that had no sugar in it.  Many tomato-based products contain added sugar so be aware of that. I also had to choose wisely because a lot of tomato products include citric acid which is derived from corn. I actually made the sauce earlier in the day because I was going to be working straight up until dinner time.  So I made the sauce in the morning, then kept it in the fridge all day and me...

Greek Salad with Beans One large organic cucumber, peeled and chopped ½ pint organic cherry tomatoes, sliced in half 1 can of organic pinto beans, drained and rinsed 3 slices of organic onion, chopped up a bit 4 oz of sheep's milk feta (Rodopa from Costco, no link) 10 Kalamata olives, sliced in half 1/8 cup Laura's Vinaigrette (or more, to taste) No real directions.  Just add them all together.  Mmmm Laura's Vinaigrette ¼ cup organic extra virgin olive oil ¼ vinegar (I use 1/8 cup organic apple cider and 1/8 cup organic balsamic) 3 large garlic cloves, minced ( I can't live without this tool ) 7 twists of freshly ground pepper 1 Tbls organic Dijon mustard (optional) salt Sometimes I prefer to salt my plate individually. I put all these ingredients into one of these plastic containers , close the lid and shake like crazy to mix the ingredients together.  You know how quickly and easily oil and vinegar separate again.  I love these...

I was remembering the other day that one of the reasons I wanted to try the elimination diet was that I seem to lack energy. I went to Mexico last June and while there I didn't stick to my elimination diet.  I ate what most people would call healthy (no fast food, no sugary snacks, etc), but when I returned from vacation I realized I was really lethargic. That's when it dawned on me that PRIOR to going to Mexico (and two months into the elimination diet), I apparently had started to lose the daily feeling of being tired all the time.  But I guess it's one of those things you don't notice or think about unless it's present.  Once it's gone, it's like out of sight out of mind.  I've noticed a few other symptoms that have disappeared that I didn't notice until I strayed from the diet and they came back. Just thought I'd mention. Oatmeal My oatmeal takes on a few variations that are dependent upon how much time I have, how much trouble...

This is one of my staples.  I don't think I even tasted cauliflower until I was in my 50's.  Roasted cauliflower could easily be one of my all time favorite foods now. Half a head of cauliflower is what I make for myself to eat at one sitting.  I'm not a fan of this stuff as leftovers, so I only make what I can eat at one meal. If there two or more of you, use the whole cauliflower head (and double the oil, turmeric, and salt). Roasted Cauliflower ½ head large organic cauliflower  2-3 tsp organic extra virgin olive oil  1 tsp organic turmeric powder ½ tsp salt I use a toaster oven so if you use a regular oven, you may need to adjust things. Preheat the toaster oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit with a steel broiler pan in the middle of the oven. Cut the cauliflower into large bite-size pieces and put them in a colander, rinse, then place in a bowl. Drizzle the olive oil over the cauliflower, sprinkle the turmeric powder and salt over...