okra maitake soup

I just got home from camping this weekend.. and luckily it was way more comfortable and enjoyable than the last camping trip I blogged about :) We enjoyed swordfish kabobs (again) and I brought a whole bunch of soaked and dehydrated walnuts, fresh peaches and nectarines, some buckwheat cookies, and some dried fruit. The weather was perfect and we basically had the camp grounds to ourselves. But in the end, I still missed my kitchen.. here's the first thing I made when I got home.

Okra Maitake Soup - Makes 2 bowls (or 3-4 small servings)

1/2 yellow onion, chopped
1/3 cup dried maitake mushrooms, soaked for 30 minutes in about 2/3 cup lukewarm water (keep the water)
1 handful of okra, washed and cut into pieces
1 handful of spinach leaves
1 small serving of tempeh(and brand of kind you like), cut into cubes
1 cup chicken broth (or veggie broth
2 tbsp olive oil
1-2 tbsp tamari (wheat free soy sauce)

Soak maitake mushrooms in lukewarm water for about 30 minutes and save the water.
Heat olive oil in a pan and sauté onions for a few minutes, then add the okra and sauté a few minutes more. Add the tamari and then about 1/3 cup of the chicken broth with the spinach leaves and the tempe. Let steam for a couple minutes. Finally add the mushrooms and their soaking water and the rest of the chicken broth. Cook until thourouly heated and serve :)

Enjoy!

it feels like fall buckwheat cookies

Perfectly sweet and soft.. and healthy.. and vegan, and gluten free and sugar free.. these cookies are easy to make and rock.
They just do.
This recipe was inspired by the Spunky Coconut's chocolate chip cookies.

Wet Ingredients:
1/2 cup apple sauce
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup grapeseed oil
3 tbsp ground flax meal
1/2 tsp xanthum gum
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 pinch stevia
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt

Dry Ingredients:
1 cup almond flour
1/2 cup buckwheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder

1/3 cup carob chips (or chocolate chips)
1/3 cup raisins

Oven! 350.
Mix all the wet ingredients with an electric mixer (I just used an immersion blender.)
Then add the wet ingredients into the premixed bowl of dry ingredients and whip!
Lastly, mix in the carob chips and the raisins.

Use wet fingers to roll the dough and flatten into a cookie shape on parchment covered baking sheets. I kept a little bowl of water on the counter and had to wet my hands after making each cookie. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

I'm not sure how many cookies this really makes.. because I ate so much of the cookie dough. It was so good!!

veggie cod bake - a picnic :)

The weather is starting to get cool.. and bearable. So I enjoyed my dinner at the park just across from my house :) Yummy, filling, healthy, about $10 for 2 dinners, and all in 1 dish - this meal is common in my house. (Cutting down on dishes is important if one doesn't have a dishwasher!)

Oven! 350.
About 1 lb cod
2 tbsp Lemon juice
2 tbsp Olive oil
2-4 carrots, peeled and cut
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 crown broccoli, cut into little trees
2 tbsp fresh parsley and thyme
couple pinches of sea salt

First marinate the fish in lemon juice and olive oil in a baking dish. In the meanwhile, preheat the oven and prepare the vegetables. Toss the carrots into the dish and sprinkle the fish with salt, then cover with foil and bake for 15 minutes.

Take the fish out of the oven, cover it in the fresh herbs, and add the onion and broccoli. Then recover it with foil and bake for an additional 10-15 minutes. Enjoy!!

A is for Anna, Agrarian, and A Positive

A is for Anna. That's why I bought this mug for my kitchen utensils a long time ago.. but maybe it also stands for A positive. That's my blood type. I took a nifty little blood type test today to make sure. I've been looking into trying a different diet to try to heal my digestive disorder. The hunt + gather diet was nice for a while, and I learned a lot.. but I didn't actually get better. Not even with all the supplements, and the western medications, and the acupuncture, and the yoga, and the cod liver oil.. Nope. Still not better.

I was turned on to the Blood Type Diet by a few friends here in Columbia while I was buying my first pair of "healthy shoes" (Clarks). I've searched the web to see what people say about the diet and I read the book, "Eat Right For Your Type." There seem to be a bunch of people out there who think the diet's a bunch of bull.. and they would probably say the same thing if you told them they had to stop drinking alcohol and eating pizza. So - I'm going to go with my gut feeling about this one and jump in head first.

The recipes from now on will be based on my blood type. Type A. I don't know if it will work, but I'm going to try it out. If you are having digestive-related problems then maybe you should check the book out from your local library and figure out what your blood type is too.. if you decide not to change your diet based on Dr. D'Adamo's research, then at least it was an interesting read.

The major difference in my diet from now on will be that there will be no meat involved. "Type As flourish on vegetarian diets - the inheritance of your more settled and less warlike farmer ancestors." -Dr. D'Adamo

There are some other things I should tell you before this next chapter of my food life begins.. I got retested for my allergies. The first test I got, about a year ago, was a blood test. My blood was drawn and sent to a lab somewhere in Georgia where it was tested for 120 different foods. My new doctor/chiropractor thinks that these results are either old, inaccurate, or a combination of the two. So she had me bring in all the foods I was tested to be allergic to, and she muscle tested me by putting each one (one at a time) in my mouth and measuring the strength or weakness of my arm muscle.

Her test presented a radically different outcome than that of my first test last summer. It showed that I am not allergic to some of the things I thought I was. But this test, like any other, will not be as accurate as the test of time and a good old fashion elimination diet. Which is pretty much what I've already been doing. So I'm planning on introducing the foods my new doctor thinks I'm not allergic to back into my diet one a time, and giving each food a week or two before I introduce the next food back in.

I am planning on introducing soy first. According to the blood type diet, type A's best get their protein from soy, fish, and a little poultry. And I'll be eating more grains again.. grains like buckwheat and oats. Eventually, I'll slowly introduce some dairy back in - in the form of cultured goat milk, and you might even see and egg in some pancakes. But this is all months away.. It's a little scary and stressful to make a big change in my diet, but it's going to make each day that much more exciting, and the best part will be a healthy Anna. I'll let you know when that happens.

savory garlic zucchini spears

I didn't feel like eating much of a dinner yesterday - so this is what I made. Simple and delicious, but can you ever go wrong with a whole lot of garlic?

zucchini, speared
olive oil
garlic, minced, a lot of it
savory
salt, just a pinch

Oven! 350. Mix oil, garlic, savory and salt in a bowl. Toss zucchini spears in mixture and place in a safe baking dish. Cook in oven for around 30 minutes. Then enjoy :)

peach pops

I will never buy a popsicle ever again. The thought just seems so silly.

2 peaches
1/2 cup coconut milk
tiny pinch salt
normal pinch nutmeg
1 1/2 tsp honey, or other sweetener
blueberries

Blend peaches, coconut milk, salt, nutmeg, and honey together. Put a few blueberries in your popsicle molds, then fill with the peach mixture. Freeze and enjoy.

salmon and mango chutney with a view

While pet sitting at my uncle's house, my boyfriend made me this delicious dinner, of cedar smoked salmon with mango chutney.
Here's how he made the seriously amazing mango chutney:

1 ripe mango, peeled and chopped
1/2 1 leek, sliced and sautéed in olive oil with salt
1 big handful of cilantro, chopped
1 lime, juiced
1 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Mix and mash all ingredients together and enjoy on just about anything!