Spicy Sesame Noodles

Summer has hit with a vengeance. While June was mostly 70s, we are running the A/C all the time now. Here's what's for dinner tonight.

Spicy Sesame Noodles

Prep time--10 minutes
Cook time--10 minutes
Yield--4-6 servings

12 oz angel hair pasta
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup water
2 TBS soy sauce
2 TBS seasoned rice vinegar
1 TBS vegetable oil (I use less)
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
2-3 tsp grated ginger
2 tsp sesame oil
pinch (or two or three) cayenne pepper
3 green onions
carrot (I use about one cup of baby carrots--they're going to get processed)
handful cilantro
1 large cucumber, halved, seeded, and sliced

Cook pasta (you know what to do). While water is heating and noodles are cooking, mix together in a large bowl the peanut butter through the cayenne.
Place green onion, carrots, and cilantro in food processor until carrots are finely diced.
When pasta is done/drained, add it to the peanut butter sauce, along with the veggies. Toss to coat. If you have them, you can also add toasted sesame seeds.

This can be served warm or cold. I like to make it earlier in the day before my house starts to get warm. No, it isn't low fat. But it is quick and cool.

Dressed up Salmon Cakes over Field Greens

If your idea of vegetarian includes fish, click here for a great recipe. Stay tuned for tomorrow. I'm trying a summer Chilean Bean Stew with a Jicama-Orange Salad and Maple Cornbread.

A Word about Wheat.....

Bags of wheat! Buckets of wheat! Barrels of wheat! Bushels of wheat! Stored in the forgotten corners of your basement or garage!

Yes, you all know what I'm talking about.

Your food storage.

So....what do you do with it? Years ago my mother set out to answer that exact question, in an attempt to both use our food storage and create an inexpensive alternative to the whole grain bread we buy. It began with a manual hand grinder and about a million and a half bread-making experiments. Now we have two grinders, manual and electric, and we make our own whole wheat, preservative-free bread, bagels, cookies, cinnamon rolls, etc.

First a word about the type of wheat. There are different types of wheat, the most common being red, closely followed by white. We have found that white wheat works best as a replacement for white flour and can work in pastries and desserts without much change in texture and flavor (just make sure it's ground very fine). Red wheat tends to make baked goods heavier, but can be remedied by adding an extra egg in place of some of the liquid in a recipe.

Here are a few of our favorite recipes to get you started.

Never-fail Whole Wheat Bread

• 1 egg at room temp. plus enough 80 degree water to equal 1 cup and 2 tablespoons
• 2 1/2 Tbs. vegetable oil
  
• 3 Tbs. honey
• 1 Tbs. yeast
• 1 1/2 tsp. salt
• 3 cups whole wheat flour (preferably white wheat)
  

Use bread machine or mix eggs & water, oil, honey, yeast, and water in one bowl, and flour and salt in another bowl. Let yeast sit for 5 minutes. Add wet mixture to the dry mixture and mix together. Knead and then let rest 1 hr. Knead a 2nd time and let rise 1/2 hr. Punch down and let rise 15 min. Punch down and let rise 45 min. Preheat oven to 350. Put loaf in oven and turn oven off for the first 20 minutes. Turn oven back on for the last 15 minutes to let brown.

Our Favorite Cinnamon Rolls

Combine:

• 1 cup mashed potatoes
  
• 1 cup warm water
  
• 2 Tblsp. yeast

Let stand. Scald:

• 1 cup milk
  
• 2 tsp. salt
  
• 2 Tblsp. butter

Mix above ingredients into 3 cups of flour. Add:

• 3 beaten eggs
  
• 1 cup sugar
  
• 6 Tblsp. shortening
  

Directions:

Add 5-6 cups whole wheat flour until you have soft dough. Let rise ‘til double. Roll out on floured board; spread w/melted butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and raisins. Roll up and cut into 2” slices. Place into pan and let rise until double. Bake at 325 degrees. Check at 30 minutes--keep checking until center rolls are done.

Glaze:

• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
  
• 2 Tblsp. margarine
  
• 1 tsp. vanilla
  
• 1 tsp almond extract
  
• 1 to 2 Tblsp. water

Honey-Whole Wheat Bagels

• 1 cup water (75 to 85 degrees)
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
  
• 1-1/2 Tbsp. honey
  
• 1-1/2 tsp. salt
  
• 2 cups bread flour
  
• 1-1/2 tsp yeast
  

For bread machine: (makes 6 bagels) place ingredients in bread pan in following order: water, honey, bread flour, wheat flour salt. Make small indentation in flour and add yeast to indentation, making sure yeast does not come in contact with liquid. Start bread machine--set on “bagel” or “dough” program.

By hand: double recipe if desired. Measure water into a bowl. Add yeast and dissolve. Add honey to water mixture and stir. In a separate container mix flour and salt, and then add to water mixture, saving 1 cup to flour board and knead with. Stir flour into water and then turn out onto floured board. Knead until smooth and elastic. Cover with a cloth and let rise until double.

to finish: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray baking sheet with non-stick cooking spray; set aside. Divide dough into equal pieces (6 for 1 recipe, 12 for double recipe) Roll into a ball and poke a hole in the middle. Roll and shape into a bagel shape. Place on baking sheet. Let rise 20 min. Fill a large pan 3’’ deep with water, add 1/4 cup sugar and bring to a boil. Gently lift bagel from baking sheet and gently submerge in water, cooking 30 seconds on each side. Remove bagel to paper towels and let drain, then place on baking sheet. Bake 20-25 min until bagels are lightly browned and surface is shiny; remove from baking sheet to wire rack to cool. Serve with Honey-Walnut spread.

Honey-Walnut Spread

Mix one 8 oz. pkg. cream cheese (reg. or light), softened, with 1 1/2 Tbsp honey. Add 3 Tbsp. walnuts. Chill

Happy Baking!

Creamy Chopped Cauliflower Salad
from Eating Well Magazine
Makes 6 servings, about 1 cup each

Scarehaircare's Notes: One of my favorites. It's easy to keep the ingredients on hand and goes together quickly. I love the caraway in this dish but you could certainly leave it out if you are not a fan.

5 tablespoons reduced-fat mayonnaise
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
1 small shallot, finely chopped
½ teaspoon caraway seeds (optional)
¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
3 cups chopped cauliflower florets (about ½ large head)
2 cups chopped heart of romaine
1 tart-sweet red apple, chopped

Whisk mayonnaise, vinegar, shallot, caraway seeds (if using) and pepper in a large bowl until smooth. Add cauliflower, romaine and apple; toss to coat.

Avocado Smoothies

The weather here is starting to have hints of warmness, so I've been celebrating by making fruit smoothies.

Avocado Smoothie
1 avocado
2 scoops vanilla ice cream (or yogurt)
enough milk so it will blend
~2-3 T sugar (to taste)

Blend until smooth. Serves 2.


strawberry banana variation:
Add 1/2 a banana and 2 handfuls of strawberries.

Sunday Dinner at E-Dub's

Here is what we ate tonight:
I love this stew (Moroccan lentil), and I'm feeling a bit sad about the loss of winter because I will miss all the hearty soups/stews we tend to eat this time of year. Instead of using the spices as outlined, I used Ras el Hanout, and this is a recipe for making your own. There are lots of versions on the web. I do cook several Moroccan dishes and finally decided to make a mixture of spices rather than measuring them out as recipes call for them.

The other thing I made was a pumpkin custard. I don't really like pie because I don't like crust--not just my crust, but anyone's crust. Custard is much better than pie. I made a recipe which came from Moosewood Low Fat Favorites.

Pumpkin Custard
2 cups cooked pumpkin (16-ounce can)
1 1/2 cups evaporated milk (12-ounce can)
2 eggs
3 egg whites
3/4 cup maple syrup or brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

Preheat oven to 350F.
Prepare eight 6-ounce baking custard cups or ramekins, with a light coating of cooking spray. Arrange the cups in a shallow, flat-bottomed baking pan.
Whril all ingredients in a blender until smooth. Pour the custard into the baking cups. Pour boiling water into the baking pan to about a 2-inch depth. Bake for about 45 to 60 minutes, until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove the cups from the hot water and cool at room temperature, then refrigerate.
Serve chilled, garnished with fresh apple slices if desired.

The only thing I did differerently was I baked it all in one large corningware casserole dish, and put that in a 9x13 pan. I cooked it for 55 minutes and it was fine.
I topped it with (don't retch) fat-free cool whip.
Everyone really liked it. Any meal in which no people are fussing about ingredients, spiciness, lack of flesh, etc. is a resounding success.

Liz's Tomato Soup Recipe

... can be found here on her blog. It sounds really good.