Real Food Hacks, Comfort Food Edition: 7 Ways To Make Pizza More Nourishing

February 8, 2012 By Vina Barham 2 Comments

My husband loves pizza. And so when he joined me in my grain-free diet for a month, pizza was the first thing he wanted to eat soon after. And well, my daughter takes after some of his father (okay, a lot!) and she loves her carbs too!

So instead of trying to deprive them of what they love to eat, I decided that I’m going to devote this year to learning how to make the food they love a ~~bit~~ lot more nourishing. And Real Food Hacks, Comfort Food Edition was born.

And this week, I bring you a round up of all the ways you can serve the All-American Pizza to your family and feel so good about it.

Better For You Pizza Dough

Cauliflower Version (Grain Free) by Emily from Joyful Abode

Almond Flour With White Beans Version (Grain Free) by Carrie from Ginger Lemon Girl.

Coconut Flour Version (Grain Free) by Sarah from Healthy Home Economist.

Sourdough Pizza Crust by Erin (Guest Post) from Gnowfglins

Soaked Pizza Crust by Heather from Mommypotamus

Almond Flour + Buckwheat Flour (Gluten Free) by Angela at Oh She Glows.

Quinoa Pizza Dough by Alta at Tasty Eats at Home

Better For Your Sauce and Toppings

Of course, making your own pizza sauce, using whole milk cheese from pastured cows and nitrate-free pepperoni (if that’s your favorite topping ever, like my husband) make the whole ensemble even more nourishing. And one final tip to sneak in even more veggies in this whole mix? Sneaky Chef Missy recommends adding a puree of carrots and sweet potato to your pizza sauce. And of course, if your family doesn’t faint at the sight of greens on their plates, adding peppers/spinach/etc to your toppings make this meal the kind of pizza you’ll love serving again and again at home.

Your Turn: Any comfort foods you’ve turned into nourishing meals in the kitchen? Or any comfort foods your family loves and you need a little help figuring out how to upgrade it in the nourishing department? As usual, if you liked this article, sharing is the kind thing to do!

Filed Under: Eat Tagged With: Real Food Hacks

Easy Peasy Homemade Pear Butter: No Sugar No Canning Necessary

December 7, 2011 By Vina Barham 7 Comments

Note: OMG. What a crazy day. Little girl didn’t take a nap today and now I know what they mean by the witching hour. There is no way I’m going to give up her naps anytime soon, if I can help it. I don’t know how you moms with more than one young child manage nap times, but I’m so thankful I only have a few more days to go juggling two! Anyway, today, I wanted to take a break from all that holiday baking and sugar. (Oh sugar, I hate and love you. One day soon, I shall have to say good-bye forever.) So for anyone else who loves pear butter like I do, here’s an easy peasy recipe for you!

I love easy. Easy = Ease = PLEASurE. (Although not necessarily always.)

So today I bring you an easy (if not the easiest!) way to make your very own homemade pear butter. Minus the sugar (yes!) and minus the…canning! This can make lovely gifts for those avoiding sugar, or at least trying to.

A word about Fermenting
If you are like me and have put off learning how to can because the whole process just seems so…hard, then I have some really good news for you! FERMENTATION to the rescue! Preserving foods the old school way was how our ancestors made the best of the harvest or the kill without refrigeration or heat. Through fermentation, not only can you preserve the good stuff that is often destroyed by high heat or processing that is often done to mass produced products like ketchup and the likes (which traditionally was made through fermentation), you also add the benefit of live cultures that are good for our gut health.

Plus did I mention how easy it was? Now for the recipe:

Easy Peasy Homemade Pear Butter (Sugar-Free!)

(From Nourishing Traditions, see resources below)

Ingredients:

4 cups unsulphured dried pear

1 Tablespoon of sea salt

1/4 cup of whey, or more salt (I used about 2 teaspoons)

1/4-1/2 cup raw honey

Directions:

Cook pears in filtered water until soft. Let it cool slightly and transfer with a slotted spoon to food processor or blender. Process with remaining ingredients. Taste for sweetness and add more honey if necessary. Place in a quart sized wide mouth mason jar. Make sure pear butter is at least 1 inch below the tops of the jars. Cover tightly and keep at room temperature on your kitchen shelf for about 2 days before transferring to the refrigerator.

Enjoy!

Filed Under: Eat Tagged With: no canning, Nourishing Food, Real Food Hacks, sugar-free

In My Kitchen: Baked Kale Chips (An Easy Peasy Tutorial)

August 23, 2011 By Vina Barham Leave a Comment

My little one is starting to get really really picky with what she puts in her mouth. And of course, one of the very few things she prefers to munch on are chips of sorts: potato, corn, cassava and all that carb-filled goodness.

So I’m trying to scheme up of ways to get more greens in her growing body (which I hope to write about soon) and awhile back, I heard about Kale Chips. And I thought, Hmmmmm…maybe if I just tell her they are special chips, she’d actually eat them! Kale is really good for you, and is one of the vegetables you’d want to include in your daily diet. Back before my juicer broke (still grieving over that), kale was part of my green juice breakfast regimen. I’m pretty sure that baking destroys some of the nutrients, but hey – it’s better than potato chips, right?

I had nothing to lose plus I had a lot of kale growing in our little garden so why not?

It’s quite easy really. And these days, I’m loving easy. I have a new rule in the kitchen and it goes something like this: If it causes me any kind of stress in any kind of way, I’m throwing it out the window. No guilt, no regrets. I’m done with doing crazy time-consuming food experiments for now. Maybe when my little one is a bit bigger, I’ll re-consider. So hello crockpot. I’ll be seeing a lot of you this Fall.

But I digress.

Back to Kale Chips.

I actually only started eating Kale early this year I think. Or maybe it was last year? Either way, it was pretty recent and I seem to like it best in soups. I just can’t cook the bitterness out when I saute it but cooking it with squashes and stuff, I can dig. It’s more of a winter veggie I suppose but they seem to be available year round. Apparently, it’s available in the Philippines as well and as a bonus to my readers from there, here’s a recipe from one of my favorite Pinoy food bloggers.

If you have never cooked with kale before, you need to cut out the stems and then chop them into bite size pieces. (Of course make sure you wash and dry them first!)

Drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper and bake for 20 minutes in a pre-heated 300 degree oven. Tada! Kale Chips! Let it cool and serve!

Easy, no? Except, my toddler didn’t like it. But whee! More for me! Maybe next time, I’ll sprinkle a good handful of Parmesan.

Yum. Now that sounds even better.

Filed Under: Eat Tagged With: healthy snacks, Real Food Hacks

In My Kitchen

August 9, 2011 By Vina Barham Leave a Comment

Note: Today’s post is light-hearted and about food, which seems laughable when there’s so much scarcity of it right now in East Africa. I think in particular the heart-breaking plight of the most vulnerable, the children, and just writing that brings tears to my eyes. And makes me want to just scrap this post altogether. But this is life. The ugly and the beautiful, the harsh and the light, the momentary and the enduring. They seem to always stand side by side. So I share a glimpse of my very ordinary day in my kitchen while thinking about such devastation that seems so far away, but is really oh so close. And I hold this tension dearly in my heart, as I hope the same for you my dear reader. If you feel compelled and haven’t yet, do something right now. Give. Sign the One Petition for World Leaders to respond to the crisis sooner than later. And perhaps, most importantly, pray, give thanks and go on mindfully about your day.

Confession Time: This past week, I’ve been slacking off in the cooking department. Like, my husband had to get pizza post-dinner because it was that bad. Yikes.

Maybe it’s the heat and we’re supposed to take all the cooking outside. But our grill died on us last year (and truth be told I’m still intimidated to cook on that thing) so I’ve been half-heartedly making meals on the stove for all of last week. Lame.

Being the guilt-prone mother that I am and sensing that my daughter hardly ate anything I made last week, I vowed to do better. But how? Why was I so uninspiring? So uninspired?

Lo and behold, I managed to break the rut after our farm-escapade this weekend. We visited a couple of organic farms east of Seattle and coming home with such fresh produce, I was so inspired to clean the kitchen (like totally!) as if I needed to make it a worthy place for such sacred food. And it was the best darn thing I did because come Monday morning, the inspiration to create hit me and I just wanted to stay in the kitchen all the day long. Which of course I didn’t. Life with a 3 year old, as you know.

But Create I Did.

I made drinks to nourish the body: Beet Kvass and Ginger Ale.

And then proceeded to make Kale Chips, Cheese Crackers and Dairy Free Coconut Vanilla Ice Cream in time for our morning snack (we saved the ice cream for later in the afternoon!)

And then for dinner? I needed something quick and easy. Plus I had some Wild Alaskan Cod thawing in my fridge. I could make Fish Tacos! Of Course!

Except I didn’t have any tortillas on hand. And this week was no-spend week so I either had to think of something else or suck it up and finally learn how to make tortillas.

Side Note: It’s fascinating to me how cooking, much like everything else in life that seems so everyday-ish and mundane, is really some sort of spiritual practice begging to be discovered. And well, practiced. (At least for emotional cooks like me.) That I had to work through my resistance against cooking and find a way to breathe life into it again is just another way to stretch, grow and become. Who would have thought?

So back to my easy-dinner-idea that turned out not so easy. Thankfully, Pioneer Woman came to the rescue. Her tutorials have always been uber-helpful for me with the play-by-play pictures and of course, that she doesn’t take herself too seriously even with a published cookbook under her belt? Heaven-sent!

Usually, when I make anything that involves flour, I try to change it up to use either almond flour or coconut flour as I try to avoid wheat if I can. If it’s not possible, then I try to use spelt. But often, my experiments would never come out right the first time. And well, there is no trying for the second time when making dinner so late in the day so I followed her recipe exactly. Thank goodness I have home-rendered lard in my pantry (oh yes, I make my own lard!) and proceeded to make the yummiest tortilla I’ve ever had. I usually try to use a swiss chard to substitute for the wrap (gluten and me don’t go well together) but after trying a bite of my homemade version, OH MY GOSH, I kept eating one right after the other! Of course, I’m sure I’m going to be paying for that later but I just couldn’t help it. It must have been the lard that made it so flavorful. Yum!

I definitely redeemed myself with this Baja Fish Taco recipe from Epicurious along with some salsa and guacamole I whipped up last minute. Dinner success indeed!

Now if I can only be this inspired every single day…

What about you? What’s cooking in your kitchen?

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Real Food Hacks

Learning Homemade: Basic Cream Cheese (And Whey)

February 16, 2011 By Vina Barham 1 Comment

When you think of cream cheese, what comes to mind? Of course, Philadelphia Cream Cheese, right? The kind they serve in single-serving wrapper for that bagel you eat with your Starbucks coffee. Well, that’s about all I knew of cream cheese, until I got a copy of Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats and learned a whole new way of eating.

The Short of My Story

For about two years now, I’ve been on this journey of going back to real and traditional foods. Basically, I’m snubbing the Standard American Diet that I wholeheartedly embraced after moving to the US from the Philippines at 16. Before then, my diet was full of nourishing food Filipino style: plenty of broth-based meals, lots of fresh vegetables and fruits, simple rice, fermented fish sauce and paste, and very little junk food (of course we had Coke as a special treat, but without the high-fructose corn syrup). Slowly, I’m learning to do without the processed stuff I ate so much of, and learning to cook food the way it’s supposed to be made.

Why Make Cream Cheese and Whey?

I no longer eat bagels anymore but yogurt/cream cheese make good substitute for sour cream as well as a healthy cake/cupcake frosting! Plus as base for all kinds of yummy salad dressing! The liquid drip left behind is whey, used in making all sorts of fermented vegetables and cultured drinks, all-natural probiotics that boost your immunity and help your digestive tract…homemade!

Avoiding food made by the big corporations like Kraft is my tiny way of taking back food where it rightly belongs: in the hands of farmers who grow them with respect, and in the hands of cooks at home who treat it with love. I hope to one day be able to buy our most if not all of our food as locally and organically as possible (and perhaps grow some of them) and make most if not all of our food from scratch when possible. Not only am I able to save money (and save extra packaging from the store-bought stuff) but I also am able to choose the best food to nurture my family. No strange ingredients whatsover. Eating well does not need to be limited for the wealthy. But one does need willing hands and heart. Small and slow is the way we are taking towards change, and I hope this inspires you to do likewise.

Plus, it’s so fun and easy! It makes me feel like an accomplished cook!

You Will Need:

Whole Milk Plain Yogurt from Grass-Fed cows (Homemade or Organic. In Seattle, I love Grays Harbor Farm Yogurt. It is so good!)
Strainer
Cheesecloth
Wooden Spatula (or anything to hang the cheesecloth from)
Glass Container or Bowl

Easy Peasy How To:

Line the strainer with the cheesecloth.
Dump your yogurt out into the strainer.
Tie the ends of the cheesecloth tightly. (Alternatively, you can use rubber bands to tie the cheesecloth shut.)
Secure the ends to a wooden spatula.
Let it sit in your counter until all the whey drips off the yogurt. (I like to cover the whole thing with a towel to keep unwanted stuff out.)
You can gently try to squeeze more whey off once it stops dripping.
Put cream cheese and whey in two separate mason jars and you are done!

Now wasn’t that easy and fun? Here’s to learning how to nourish our families, one homemade step at a time!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: learning homemade, Real Food Hacks

Making Peace With Being A (Hopelessly Flawed) Planner :: And Our Weekly Menu To Boot ::

January 30, 2011 By Vina Barham 2 Comments

Although naturally a planner, I live on the edge once in a while and make do without a plan. But often with disastrous results. I get panicky mostly because I fail to come up with a creative and neat solution on my feet. When I take time to plan out my week, no matter how much I end up changing the plan at the last minute, it gives me a sense of order (and of course, that perceived control). Planning may never guarantee peace and calm, but it helps put me on the path towards it at the very least. Paradoxically, when I do have a plan, I am better able to “go with the flow” and switch things around in my head. Mind you, I am not a Type A person, but I’m not a Type B either. Just somewhere in between who needs a good balance of planning and structure with a right dose of gracious flexibility. On my best days that is.

And now that my diet has changed a lot (GAPS friendly but not GAPS restricted), I really have to have a weekly menu to go by. I want to work towards becoming a more intuitive cook, where I can just whip up something in the kitchen given whatever I have on hand. One day, one day. But for now, my limited culinary prowess forces me to take an hour of my week to plan something that will nourish my family all around.

So I will try, with no promises, to post our weekly menu on Sundays. For my sake, and perhaps as an inspiration (or not) to someone else. They will be mostly grain-free except for the occasional sprouted bread or so for the rest of my family. I also hope to cook Filipino-Asian dishes once a week and share the recipes here. It’s part of my desire to re-connect with my Filipino cultural roots more (which will be for another post) and surely cooking (and eating) is one easy way to do so.

Barham’s Weekly Menu:

{Snacks/Treats for the Week: Grain-Free Granola and Black Bean Brownies}

Monday

Dinner: Mexican (Chicken) Tortilla Soup {I hope to try this recipe from Once Upon A Chef as it looks super simple enough. We love Ina Garten’s version but it’s always good to try something different. I am going to use organic sprouted corn tortilla since (1) most corn is genetically modified unless certified organic and (2) sprouted is the best way to make it more digestion-friendly. I also exclusively use homemade broth, which is super easy to do using the crockpot. Just because homemade is a million times better.
Notes: Make Broth on Sunday and Use Chicken Meat Leftovers. Soak lentils for Tuesday. And make Grain-Free Granola for snacks throughout the week.

Tuesday

Dinner: Spiced French Lentil Kabocha and Kale Stew {This recipe is from Shannon at Nourishing Days. I can’t wait to try this super healthy and seemingly delish vegan stew for cold days. I’m crossing my fingers that my hubby will like our meatless dish.)
To Do: Make Beef Broth + Cook Beef

Wednesday

Dinner {Asian/Filipino}: Kare-Kare or Filipino Oxtail Stew {This is one of my all-time favorite dishes that I’ve never attempted to cook. But after eating the most flavorful Vietnamese beef stew that my husband raved about last week at a little restaurant in downtown Seattle, I knew I wanted to learn how to make beef stew, South-East asian style. I’m on a hunt for annatto seeds this week!)
To Do: Thaw Ground Beef, Soak Beans and Soak Cornmeal.

Thursday

Dinner: Chili and Cornbread {This one is a staple at our house because it’s super easy to put together. One of the few dishes I can cook without a recipe but here’s one I wanted to share with in case you are looking for some good nourishing chili. Usually, I just use canned beans for convenience but I’m going to try to soak the beans this time.}
To Do: Nothing! Fridays need to be an easy dinner because by then, I’m just done in the kitchen!

Friday

Dinner: Chili Hot Dogs with Cultured Sauerkraut on Sprouted Buns And Raw Cheese {This recipe is from Cheeseslave, another one of my favorite food blogs. This will be a treat for my hubby and little one, and I’m buying 100% Grass-fed Pure Beef Dog from Thundering Hooves, where we get our beef. I tried my hand at homemade sauerkraut last week but I also bought one at PCC without any additives whatsover. We’ll probably eat this with some salad.}
To Do: Make Bean Brown Brownie for treats!

And there you have it! Here’s to a week of nourishing life-giving meals!