Noshtopia

Quick Way To Jazz Up Your Green Salad: Add Fresh Basil

Can you smell that fresh basil? hmmmm....

Lately, I've really been into getting fresh herbs at the farmer's market because it's cheap and it's fresh. I'm all about seasoning foods with natural green power, and fresh herbs are just so darn delicious! When I have a house one day, I'd like to have an herb garden in the backyard.

To jazz up my arugula salads which I eat almost everyday while I blog, I've been chiffonading some fresh basil and tossing it in with the arugula and wow, it's really fabulous to get a burst of basil. The combination of the arugula and basil is also some pretty potent greenness.

Ever since I started the sugar wean at the beginning of the year, my body has been craving greens more and more. In fact, I now often eat kale and arugula for breakfast. Yeah, sounds weird but really it's a fantastic way to start the day. I can feel my cells doing a happy dance.

Odd But Tasty Combo: Black Forest Bacon, Turkey, Avocado & Kiwi Sandwich

For lunch, I was craving a BLT but didn't have any tomato or lettuce but I did have some avocado and a kiwi. I thought, "Eh, what the heck." Why not try the kiwi in lieu of tomato. Both are fruits right?

 

OMG! It was really good. In addition to the Black Forest bacon, honey turkey, avocado, and kiwi, I used Brianna's Poppyseed dressing, some spicy honey mustard, and Whole Foods Bakery sweet multi-grain bread. As you can see, I'm big into the sweet & zesty.

I particularly enjoyed the sweet of the kiwi with the salty of the bacon. To me, the two flavors complimented well. Who knew!

Trying Something New: Chili Made With Buffalo Meat

 

(Picture of Buffalo Chili with a dollop of Honey flavored Greek yogurt. I like the combo of sweet with savory.)

I remember reading that book Eat Right For Your Blood Type, and (taken with a grain of salt because there is still no solid scientific evidence this eating for your blood type theory is concrete) it said B types like myself should avoid chicken meat because it has some agglutinating lectin that attacks our bloodstream. Along with the chicken egg allergy, it appears that my body just thinks fowl is foul.

Bring on the parade of atypical meats

What blew my mind though was that the Blood type diet said some of the best meats to eat are venison, mutton, buffalo, goat, and Bugs Bunny (rabbit to be exact but when I think of cooked rabbit I get scary visions of Fatal Attraction.)

Um, so, none of these meats are mainstream at all. How many times have you been to a restaurant or BBQ and seen goat, buffalo, or mutton on the menu? Indeed, there are parts of the US and the world where these meats are main stays, but I'm talking about living in your basic US suburban town shopping at Safeway or Trader Joe's.

Buffalo...tastes like beef

To my surprise, I was shopping at Whole Foods in Napa the other day, and in the To-Go soup section they had Buffalo Chili which was made with chunks of buffalo meat. Intrigued, I got a pint of the buffalo chili, and it was delicious. In fact, if I hadn't known it was buffalo meat, I would have thought there was beef in there.

The Whole Foods buffalo chili contained your typical chili ingredients, but one ingredient that stood out was tamarind because I've never seen tamarind used in a typical American dish. This fact could just be my limited exposure.

I wondered if Whole Foods used the tamarind simply for a twist on their recipe or to help make the buffalo meat more appealing taste wise to a beef palate. If anyone knows, I'd love to hear more about it.

Baked Macaroni with Turkey Sauce and Rice Cheddar Cheese

I've always wanted to try Galaxy Foods Cheddar Rice Shreds more because I'm curious how this "cheese" melts. So, for the experiment, I made baked macaroni with turkey sauce and the cheddar shreds.

This recipe is really easy because I just use store bought stuff. Feel free to replace the brands I use with ones you like.

Ingredients (for 4 people):

• 1 jar of Whole Foods 365 brand organic pasta sauce
• 1 can of Muir Glen fire roasted diced tomatoes with medium green chilies (I like a little kick in my sauce and these tomatoes from Muir Glen are awesome.)
• 3/4lb ground turkey
• 1 cup dry macaroni pasta
• 1 bag Galaxy Foods Cheddar Rice Shreds
• Diced red onions
• Crushed garlic
• Salt, pepper, and Trader Joe's 21 Seasoning Salute
• Worcestershire sauce
• Organic ketchup
• evoo

Let's get cooking:

• Heat the oven to 350 degrees

• Start to boil water in a pot to cook the macaroni

• In a pan, saute the diced red onions and garlic in evoo til soft.

• Add in the ground turkey and season with salt, pepper, Trader Joe's 21 Seasoning Salute, and worcestershire sauce (I use about 4-5 dashes). Brown the meat.

• While the turkey is browning. Boil the macaroni pasta until it's al dente, that way the pasta can cook more when it's baking. Check your macaroni box for cooking times.

• When the turkey is all brown add in the jar of pasta sauce and the can of fire roasted diced tomatoes. Because I like pasta sauce with a little sweet zesty kick, I add some organic ketchup. Simmer and stir the tomato sauce with meat for about 5 minutes. 

• Drain the macaroni when it's done. In a glass dish mix the macaroni, meat sauce and cheddar rice shreds all together. Save some of the cheddar shreds for later as a cheesey topping. Cover the dish with aluminum foil and bake for 25 minutes.

• After 25 minutes, remove the aluminum foil and top the dish with more cheddar rice shreds. 

• Put the oven on broil until the cheese melts. You'll have to watch your oven because broiling can vary on the oven. Broiling is the best way to make this cheese melt so it gives the appearance of like how regular cow milk cheese melts.

So the Galaxy Foods Cheddar Rice Shreds doesn't really melt like cow milk cheddar but it's a nice try. The rice shreds are tasty, but again it's not exactly like the cow milk cheddar. You can taste a difference because there is less flavor.

Still, I would use the rice shreds again. Perhaps in the next dish we can try a Mac & Rice Cheese.

Nosh twist: Hummus with Flax Seed Crackers

Most people will eat hummus with pita bread, on sandwiches, or with traditional crackers. But, how about trying hummus with some flax seed crackers.

Flax contain high levels of lignans and Omega-3 fatty acids, and is a good source of fiber to help you with ya know, staying "regular." Flax oil is good for vegetarians and vegans as well as meat eaters who don't like fish or fish oil supplements, to get some of the healthy fats that others would get from eating fish.

I like that flax seeds have a "meaty" quality to them, so in cracker form, you feel like you're really biting into something substantial.

If you'd like to make your own flax seed crackers, here's some recipes:

• Flax Seed Crackers [via Health Castle]

• Vegan-friendly Flax Seed Crackers [via Living and Raw Foods]