Portobello Burgers

I have a strong love for mushrooms. Pizza, salads, pastas, on their own - doesn't matter. So when Farm Fresh Delivery brought me two giant portobellos I wanted to do something wonderful with them. I hunted for recipes, invited Jill over for dinner and the rest was history. It was a delicious alternative to a big heavy hamburger. We had a pear and mixed green salad with homemade pear dressing and fresh strawberries. It was a delightful dinner with my favorite Jill.

Portobello Burgers

• 4 portobello mushroom caps
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• salt and pepper to taste
• 4 (1 ounce) slices provolone cheese

Directions

1. Place the mushroom caps, smooth side up, in a shallow dish. In a small bowl, whisk together vinegar, oil, basil, oregano, garlic, salt, and pepper. Pour over the mushrooms. Let stand at room temperature for 15 minutes or so.
   
2. Broil or grill for 5-8 min on each side. Add cheese on the smooth top for the last 2 minutes.
   

Love for the Quinoa

We recently tried Quinoa and it's been a fun new alternative to rice and pasta in our house. So what is quinoa and how do you pronounce it. Wikipedia calls it a pseudocereal and a grain like crop. It can be found near the bags of rice or pasta. It's pronounced like keen-wah.

My first real meal with it was a Quinoa, Spinach and Mushroom recipe (found here). I loved this dish but Brad wasn't crazy over it. However, we attended the Green Fest in Indianapolis in March and a cooking demonstration gave us a new Quinoa recipe. Here it is:

• 1/2 cup quinoa, (rinsed well)
  
• 1 cup water
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar (i used white wine vinegar)
  
• 2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil (i used canola oil)
  
• 1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger (i used powdered ginger)
  
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• Pinch of cayenne pepper
• 1 small mango, diced
  
• 1 small red bell pepper, diced
• 1 cup canned black beans, rinsed
• 2 scallions, thinly sliced

1. Toast quinoa in a small dry saucepan over medium heat, stirring often, until it crackles and becomes aromatic, 4 to 6 minutes. *Don't burn. Error to lightly toasted* Transfer to a fine sieve and rinse thoroughly. Return the quinoa to the pot and add water. Bring to a simmer; reduce heat to maintain a simmer. Cover and cook until the quinoa is tender and the liquid has been absorbed, 15 to 20 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, whisk orange juice, cilantro, vinegar, oil, ginger, salt and cayenne in a medium bowl. Add mango, bell pepper, beans and scallions; toss to coat.
3. When the quinoa is finished cooking, add to the mango mixture and toss to combine.

This is a great alternative to traditional cook out side dishes. It even works well for 2 days or so in the refrigerator if you have leftovers.

Homemade Granola Bars

We're trying to make foods instead of buying prepackaged so we have a better control of the ingredients and their source. After much searching, I settled on a granola bar recipe I found online and modified it a bit. They turned out stinking incredible. Here you go:

1 cup steel cut oats
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup granola*
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 beaten egg
1/4 cup fresh ground peanut butter
1/4 cup honey
1 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons canola oil
1/4 cup golden flax seed
1/4 cup currants (tiny raisins)
1/4 cup dried cranberries

*I used the bulk organic Vanilla Granola from Whole Foods. It had slivers of almond mixed in but you could use plain granola and add in a nut of your choice.

1) Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line a 9 inch square baking pan with aluminum foil. Spray the foil with cooking spray.
2) In a large bowl, stir together the oats, flour, granola and cinnamon. In separate bowl combine the egg, peanut butter, honey, brown sugar, and oil. Mix wet into dry. Stir in the flax seed, walnuts, and dried fruit. Spread mixture evenly in the prepared pan.
3) Bake 30 minutes, or until firm and lightly browned around the edges. Let cool. Use the foil to lift from the pan. Cut into squares.

And try really hard not to eat all of them right away!

This is a fun recipe because it can be modified in any way. The flax seed could be exchanged for sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds. The dried fruit options are endless!

Baby Food Basics

I have a serious love of making homemade baby food. It's simple and it's kind of fun (shhhh..don't repeat that!) and it's nice to know what we're feeding the tiniest member of our family is healthy and unprocessed.

There are a ton of baby food recipe books. You may laugh at the thought of that (I did at first) because really baby food is just stuff thrown in a blender, right? Well yes. But the book I have is a good tool on age appropriate food. The "recipes" also give a good guideline on how to prepare and cook each fruit and veggie. It also gives good suggestions on stuff I wouldn't have thought of trying. As your child gets older, the recipes become more complex. Admittedly I stopped referring to the book as much when Ally started eating the same meals we did but it's a nice reference if I'm looking for a unique snack or a healthy fruit/veggie combo.

A quick over view of my baby food practices. I make big batches of food at one time. I freeze the food in ice cube trays and then store the frozen cubes in ziploc bags which are labeled with type and date made. Most food can be frozen for months (veggie freezing) and you're likely to use it all up long before quality becomes a concern. I did buy a heavy duty blender when I started making Ally's food because I used it a lot and it was worth the investment. It's still going strong now. A coffee grinder designated for grains only is also helpful (see below.) Aside from the range, that's really all you need.

Something I have learned about recently is making your own rice cereal as opposed to the iron fortified processed flakes from a box. I never really thought about the rice cereal until I started reading the ingredients and did some research. Many babies are started on rice cereal first because it is so basic and easy to digest. Very few people have rice allergies (more common is an allergy to the pollen that may be on the rice) and it is typically well received by immature digestive systems. For babies with GERD or similar issues, rice cereal can help "thicken" the food and reduce spitting up and easy tummy pain. However, the boxed cereal is a bit deceiving. There is a long ingredient list of additives because the rice has to be "stripped down" before it can be dehydrated. All the basic good stuff has to then be added back in. The bottom line to this topic is that this 1st food has been cooked and dehydrated and enriched and made into a complicated product.

So I decided to try making my own rice cereal. It couldn't be that hard right? Well it took a little experimenting but I figured it out.

1) Follow package instructions to make 1-2 cups of short grain brown rice. Let cool slightly.
2) Puree rice in blender with 1/4 cup water until smooth, adding water as necessary to thin down mixture to desired thickness.
3) Freeze in ice cube trays.
4) When frozen, put cubes in plastic bag and label.

That's all there is too it. I also used a coffee grinder (one that is just for grains) to grind up some rice into a fine powder. This can be taken to Grandma's house and kept in the fridge for meals over there. For the powder you use 1/4 cup powder to 1 C water and boil together for 10 min.

As we all know, many kids move past enjoying rice cereal once they try fruits and veggies because there's not a lot of taste. However, mixing one cube of cereal with a fruit or veggie makes a great meal and adds in good nutrition such as bran, iron and magnesium. You can also use the above method for oatmeal cereal.