stevia

In need of a healthy and tasty lunch? Look no further than this salad, featuring protein-packed quinoa and toasted almonds. Using Martha Stewart's recipe as my starting point, I switched out various vegetables and added other ingredients. I also used dried thyme instead of fresh. Otherwise, I followed the cooking method exactly as written. The ingredients were prepped and I began sauteing the green onions, onions, garlic, and red pepper flakes. After the onions soften, the quinoa is added along with water, thyme, and salt. Halfway through, sliced zucchini is mixed into the quinoa. The total cooking time to cook the quinoa was about 17-20 minutes. As the quinoa cooked, bacon was cooking in a skillet and almonds were toasting in the oven. The remaining ingredients were prepped and ready to be tossed with the quinoa. Place the cooked quinoa into a large mixing bowl to toss with additional ingredients. The flavor of the thyme with the heat of the red pepper is really delicious. I would recommend that you do not leave out the toasted almonds because they add a lot of flavor and crunch. Each portion is packed with a lime wedge to be squeezed over the salad before serving, which adds another dimension of flavor. I would recommend adding chopped flat-leaf parsley, too. Besides packing for lunches, this would make an excellent light dinner or tasty side dish.

photo by tess_marie on flickr.com What is Tu B'shevat you ask? Why it is the holiday of trees established by the Talmudic rabbis sometime between the 3rd to 5th century --the early part of the Middle Ages. As the daughter of liberal Jewish activists (my parents met at a civil rights meeting in the 1960's) [...] Click on the title to be taken to the full post at www.elanaspantry.com. Please note: This email was sent from a notification-only address that cannot accept incoming email. Please do not reply to this message.

I hadn't planned on blogging about this granola. I made it on a whim for breakfast since cereal isn't very filling and I don't always want to eat eggs (hot oatmeal doesn't do it for me). This is probably the least complicated recipe I've made, but it is one of the best. It has quinoa for a little protein, and is packed with fruit and nuts. I didn't use much much quinoa because I wasn't sure of the proportions, so next time I'll add more. To make this granola, dry ingredients, minus the dried fruit, are mixed in a large bowl. The wet ingredients, butter, pancake syrup, and a little orange juice, are heated together until the butter is melted, then poured over the oatmeal and mixed until coated thoroughly. Little clusters will begin to form. Simply spread it out on a greased baking sheet and bake for a quick thirty minutes. The granola will be lightly golden. I like how the clusters of oats are studded with quinoa. The quinoa doesn't have too strong of a taste when it's eaten like this. I've been craving crunchy granola bars and I just might have to play around with this recipe to see what I can do about it. The quinoa will definitely help with the crunchiness. When I think of granola I think of crunchy clusters of sweet, crispy oatmeal with nuts and dried fruit. Well, there are clusters here - many of them. It ended up not being as sweet as I expected, but the sweetness of the dried fruit helped out. Instead of using honey like I normally do I subbed it with pancake syrup. That's probably why it wasn't as sweet. I ate a bowl with Greek yogurt, milk, and fresh fruit. I didn't mind that the granola itself wasn't very sweet because I don't want to ingest a sugar bomb so early in the day anyway. Try it out for yourself if you want a healthy, tasty granola.

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Creamy dairy free soup made with superfood cauliflower to warm you up on a cold night. Soup is good food. Especially healthy soup made with a mere five ingredients. This quick and easy Roasted Cauliflower soup recipe is one that I found in a recent issue of Bon Appetit. Except their recipe had butter and [...] Click on the title to be taken to the full post at www.elanaspantry.com. Please note: This email was sent from a notification-only address that cannot accept incoming email. Please do not reply to this message.

So, it snowed this week. I guess that means winter is finally here, so now I have to put up with the flaky white stuff, winds, and chilling temperatures for the next two-three months. It's not so bad when I get around to baking, which is what I did this weekend. My long run was on Saturday and I was anticipating cold, anger, and rage, so I decided to make a dessert to look forward to eating afterward. I didn't want a cake, tart, or some sort of pretentious dessert that takes five hours to prepare, just something warm and comforting. After reaching that conclusion, my mind shifted to cobblers, crisps, and the like. That led me to my final destination of Emeril Lagasse's Apple-Of-My-Eye Crisp from There's A Chef In My Soup!, a cookbook I had given my brothers a very long time ago. Lil bro had often made the apple crisp and it became everyone's favorite. What I like about this recipe is the perfect buttery, crispy topping, and the tender apples become that are infused with flavor and suspended in caramely sauce. I forgot that my brother always doubles the topping, uses more brown sugar and less granulated, and increases the apple filling by half, so I made it again yesterday. I'll include the recipe for the normal amount of apples and double the crisp, because the best part of a crisp is... the crisp. Right? To make the topping, mix together flour, a pinch of salt, and both brown and white sugar. Cut in the butter until the mixture is coarse, then chill in the fridge while you prepare the apples. The recipe calls for two types of apples, Granny Smiths and Golden Delicious, though I used Granny Smiths and a firm red apple suitable for baking. The apples are thickly sliced to keep them from breaking down during baking. The apples are then tossed with lemon juice, then the sugar-corn starch-cinnamon-ginger mixture. It doesn't look very saucy, but as the apples cook the moisture is released, which helps create the juicy, thick, and spicy sauce. Carefully spread the crisp topping over the apples, then bake for an hour and fifteen minutes until the apples are bubbly and the topping is a deep brown. After it bakes, you might be tempted to dig right in. It smells delicious and looks tempting, but you'll probably burn your mouth and the filling won't have set, so let it rest for a little bit. If you don't have any, now would be the perfect time to go on a whipped cream run. You can eat it plain but the cream goes really well with this. Next time it snows and you're looking out the window in disgust, don't bother leaving. Just head on in to the kitchen and get baking. In particular, this apple crisp.

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Lightly sweetened gluten free, grain free Coconut Bars contain good fats from heart healthy coconut oil. These rich and moist coconut bars are made of not one, but three different forms of scrumptiously healthy coconut, including shredded coconut, coconut oil and coconut milk in their ingredients list. I have Shirley at Gluten Free Easily to [...] Click on the title to be taken to the full post at www.elanaspantry.com. Please note: This email was sent from a notification-only address that cannot accept incoming email. Please do not reply to this message.

This was a decent week of running. It started out really cold, snowy, and wintry, but the latter week warmed up nicely and wasn't too bad. I hope it won't get much worse, though you never know around here. Saturday marked the fourth week of running over twenty miles. It's a doable distance on four days of running a week, though I'll be adding a fifth day soon to prepare myself for running more often. Minor changes for 5-a-day weeks include adding short runs of three miles and reducing the mileage in my midweek runs to one four, five, and six-miler instead of two five or six milers. The long run remains the same. As for the long runs, I've gotten through three seven-milers and an 8.5 miler pretty well, which leaves me hopeful for half marathon training. In two weeks, I'll alternate between eight and nine milers to slowly increase my endurance. Most of my runs have been at a slightly quick, yet still manageable pace. I start off slow, then speed up during the latter half of a run. While it feels alright, and considering I haven't done any speed work it's not too bad, I realize I need to focus on maintaining a legitimate slow pace. This week, I'll run two of my runs at a 9:30 pace, specifically the long run and a midweek run. The remaining two will include intervals each mile, and a mid-range pace run, so something around 8:40-50. I'll see how that goes. Monday - 5 miles Wednesday - 5.6 miles Thursday - 6 miles Saturday - 7 miles Total - 23.6 miles

This Paleo Plan is for my friend Leslie Dietrich. Our children play baseball together and Leslie and I had the pleasure of thrift shopping our way through Waco, Texas last summer when their team was in the Regional Little League World Series Playoffs. Like me, Leslie has a host of auto-immune disorders. Unlike me, she [...] Click on the title to be taken to the full post at www.elanaspantry.com. Please note: This email was sent from a notification-only address that cannot accept incoming email. Please do not reply to this message.

I still remember the day I tried my first rum ball. It was part of a Christmas cookie package and the aroma of the rum permeated the tin. It was chewy, strong, and delicious. Immediately afterward, I looked up recipes and was amazed by how simple rum balls are to make. It's almost like a Larabar in texture, though very unlike a Larabar except for the nuts. Do you think they'd ever make a rum ball Larabar? Oh Nuts had sent me these roasted, unsalted pistachios back in December. I had thrown ideas around, never settling on anything. Time eventually flew by and I still hadn't made anything with them. As New Year's approached, I decided the proper use for them would be in a rum ball. Rum balls are classified as a no-bake cookie. All you do is finely grind the nuts, finely grind vanilla wafers (or puffed rice cereal, shortbread cookies, etc.), and mix the two with confectioners' sugar, a bit of cocoa powder. The dough is made by stirring in rum and corn syrup. I hadn't finely ground the nuts enough, or the wafers, so I think it affected the consistency. I added a little extra water, corn syrup, and rum. I wanted to add more rum, but I hoped the amount I did add (1/3 cup total) would become stronger as the dough refrigerated overnight. When I started rolling them out, I tasted a bit of the dough. There was a little bite of rumminess in the back of your throat, but it wasn't as strong as I remembered. I ended up liking the flecks of pistachio and was glad I didn't grind them more finely after all. You can coat these in anything you want, like melted chocolate, chopped nuts, sprinkles... I chose cocoa powder mixed with confectioners' sugar. It's a good thing I didn't add more rum or else nobody would have enjoyed them. I'll have to make myself a stash of rum balls some other time. The texture on these was great. They held their shape, but it was very soft and chewy. They're addictive, though I only managed 5 over the course of the night. I bet these would be great to fuel a run, don't you think? If you're interested in the recipe, check out the recipe at Joy of Baking.

Pertaining strictly for my blog, I asked myself if I would bother making any cooking and/or running resolutions. I usually don't make resolutions on New Year's I typically make them up throughout the year. As I've found with my running schedule, though, I seem to stick with a plan compared to making schedules up on the fly so perhaps I should create a list after all. Here goes. Cooking -

1. Learn techniques - I'm decent enough on the cooking and baking front, though I don't feel that I always have basic techniques down. What I have been meaning to do in the past is work my way through a "how to learn everything" cookbook. Martha Stewart has her cooking and baking handbooks, and the Culinary Institute of America has their versions. There is no particular reason why I've always wanted to do this other than to develop a comprehensive culinary knowledge. I don't have any plans to formally enter the culinary world, though I've always wanted to work at a bakery/cafe because it seems fun. Basically, I would like to learn the techniques that separate the chef from the at-home cook, and maybe one day enter the Gordon Ramsay cooking contest show on FOX (not Hell's Kitchen, because the idea of running a kitchen really does sound like hell).
2. Cook and bake more consistently - Maybe not so much bake, because who needs that many sweets lying around? But cooking... I get really lax. At best, I make up pasta dishes comprised of sauteed vegetables, maybe a protein, and the pasta. It's weak, and not worth writing home about. Or posting about. Part of this stems from a lack of planning, laziness, and feeling like if I don't create a full mean (with mains and sides), it's not a meal. Instead, I could make a nice little stuffed chicken with a vegetable side in 45 minutes. Like I said, I'm just lazy and lack the foresight. Bread. I used to bake bread religiously, then I fell off the bandwagon. I rarely eat bread nowadays because store-bought bread repulses me. It just isn't that good, and if it is good it costs $5 a loaf. Why pay that much for one loaf when I can buy five pounds of bread flour for approximately the same price? Also, bread making is an art, particularly artisan bread. I've made a few baguettes in the past, and though I really like the no-knead bread technique I want to learn how to really make traditional artisan break. Pies. Pies are my weakness. The pies I made for Thanksgiving were the best. Why? Because the bottom crusts were crispy. I baked them for much longer than the recipe said to, otherwise it would have been a failure like usual. I don't know why this is. Maybe a pie a month, at least.

I can't think of anymore cooking resolutions right now. Running -

1. Training - I use the word "training" very lightly. Mostly what I mean is that I want to be consistent and build a respectable (for myself) weekly mileage base, like around 30-35 miles per week. I'd like to incorporate speed work, long runs, and whatever on a semi-regular basis so I can be decent at races if I choose to run them, without actually training for any particular race. What I'm saying is that I want to be ready for spur-of-the-moment decisions. I'd also incorporate rest weeks/months where I just run without worrying about speed and crap. December has been a good month. While the grand total of 94 miles isn't impressive, it represents consistency and the fact that I created a plan for myself that I stuck to. I'm hoping I'll remain consistent as the weather begins to deteriorate. I'm not sure I have any motivation right now other than the realization that I'm no longer young and it's not going to get any easier, so I better do it now. There's nothing like fear to get you moving.
2. Races - Um... My racing schedule is tentative. There is the Sunburst half marathon that I've always wanted to do, but couldn't because I never ran enough during the winter to support a decent training plan. I have until the end of January to register for the earliest entry fee of $55, which is the most I'd ever consider paying for a half. I'm saying this because the cost of the race is relative to the effort I'm putting into it. If I know I've slacked off and I won't race as well as I want to, I'm not going to sign up for an expensive race. Why Sunburst? Sunburst is important to me because if it wasn't for this race, I would never have started running. I trained for it all by myself using a 5k plan from Cooking Light, managed to not get injured thanks to my lack of knowledge (I had no concept of pace -- the first 400s I ever ran were horrible), ran two 5ks leading up to Sunburst, and finally ran the Sunburst 5k in 24:54. It means a lot to me. Other races are up in the air. I considered the Holy Half in late March, though I'll most likely not run it. There is a half in May I considered, but I'm not signed up for it yet and I still don't know how I feel about it. As for any 5ks and 10ks, my lack of motivation is prompting me to bag racing all year, like in 2011. I'm just not there mentally, and I'm okay with it.

Cool story, right? Now that I have nothing more to say, I'd like to hear about your goals. What are they, and what do they mean to you? Happy New Year, folks.

Dairy free Mocha Mousse dessert recipe served in individual cups is elegant, yet is easy to make. You can whip up this primal-friendly chocolate Mocha Mousse in just a few minutes. All you need is a and the gluten free, dairy free ingredients below. I plan on serving this Mocha Mousse in little ramekins to [...] Click on the title to be taken to the full post at www.elanaspantry.com. Please note: This email was sent from a notification-only address that cannot accept incoming email. Please do not reply to this message.

I kept putting this review off because I was scared by my pressure cooker. You see, Wayfair.com gave me the opportunity to review a product. I decided to use the opportunity to be somewhat practical instead of ordering a neato appliance like a Belgian waffle iron. Finally, after much thought I decided on a Presto 8 Quart Aluminum Pressure Cooker. When it arrived I assembled the handles and stared at its shininess before putting it in the box and leaving it alone. The good part of a pressure cooker is that foods can be cooked in half the time it normally takes. How? The ingredients are placed in the cooker, or in a bowl placed on a rack in the cooker. The lid is latched on and the cooker heats up. As the heat rises, pressure builds up inside and the lid is locked. The pressure regulator, a knob placed on the vent pipe, gently rocks back and forth to let you know the proper amount of steam is escaping. Because of the built up pressure, the food cooks quicker. Also, this method of cooking preserves the nutrients of the food you're cooking. Win-win. What I found to be scary about this particular model is, how do I know if it's cooking at the correct temperature? What exactly is a "gentle rocking"? What if I lower the heat too much and it stops rocking? The only way to figure it out was to try it, which we did on Christmas. We wanted a wild rice pilaf that normally takes an hour to cook, but would take just 25 minutes in the pressure cooker. Rice has to be cooked in a covered bowl inside the cooker. Why? The manual says that since rice tends to foam when it cooks it has a tendency to clog the vent hole. Fortunately, I have a medium size metal bowl that fit nicely inside. This model comes with a rack, so I put the rack on the bottom and poured two cups of water inside, which is to keep the cooker from drying out and burning. The vegetables (onions, carrots, mushrooms, celery and garlic) are cooked in a separate skillet, then mixed with the rice, chicken broth, and white wine. Stir it once, then cover tightly with foil and place inside the cooker. Here is the lid. See the hole on the handle? That's where the air vent cover. The lock pin is on the bottom handle, and it locks when the pressure builds inside the cooker. Once it locks, you can't open it until the pressure is reduced. More on that in a bit. On top of the lid is the vent pipe, where the regulator is placed. If it rocks too vigorously, excess steam is released and the food might scorch because the liquid evaporates too quickly. I see the temperature knob is on 7 in the background, so in this picture I had started to reduce the heat. You need to remain nearby so that you can gradually lower the heat enough to maintain a gentle rocking. If it stops rocking, you'll need to raise it. Unlike a slow cooker, a pressure cooker does require a bit of attention. Also, make sure you set a timer. After the timer buzzes, the pressure needs to be reduced. Depending on what you're making there are two ways to do it. One, you can "manually" reduce it by running cold water on top of the cooker. Two, you let the cooker reduce pressure itself by removing it from the heat. Once the lock drops, you can open the lid. However, don't lock the lid back on to keep the food warm... Because the lock might rise again and you'll have to wait until it drops. Yeah. Anyway, the latter method adds another 10-20 minutes onto the cooking time, so it almost equaled cooking the rice in a pot on the stove, though I kind of liked cooking it in the pressure cooker. The rice came out moist and it was cooked through. I'm going to enjoy cooking with the pressure cooker and will try to turn it into a series on here.

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For the technical side. This cooker is sold for $44.69 on Wayfair.com. It's aluminum, so it's not as expensive as a stainless steel model. Stainless steel is actually preferable because it's less likely to get warped and distributes heat better, but for the average person (like myself) an aluminum model works just fine. Just don't turn the heat up to high when you're first bringing it up to pressure and it'll be okay. I chose the 8-quart size because I can cook larger batches of food at a time. A 4-6 quart would be best if you're single or are cooking for two, three, or even four. I wanted the option of being able to cook large batches for leftovers. The smaller the cooker, the less it costs. There are electric models and models with a different regulating system on top, but for now I think I'm satisfied with the way this one works. As I continue using it, I'll be able to provide a more in depth review, so stay tuned.

Gluten free, grain free, egg free, nut free, refined sugar free (everything) free brownies. I really enjoy using almond flour --almonds are a superfood and highly nutritious. However, every now and then, someone requests a nut free dessert recipe for some type of gluten free baked good. At other times, folks are looking for an [...] Click on the title to be taken to the full post at www.elanaspantry.com. Please note: This email was sent from a notification-only address that cannot accept incoming email. Please do not reply to this message.

Christmas dinner was a little different this year. Instead of a turkey or ham, my mom wanted to try stuffed chicken breasts. They're fancy with the stuffed filling, and the only real work to prepare them consists of butterflying and pounding split chicken breasts, rolling the chicken up, and securing the rolls with cooking twine. We started off by preparing a fig and leek filling. Oh Nuts had sent me some figs, so I figured this was a perfect opportunity to finally use them. They were soft, especially for being dried figs, and reconstituted nicely in heated orange juice. Finely chopped leeks, a bit of salt, and white wine were mixed in. The key to keep the chicken from falling apart is to secure the roll with cooking twine. I've used toothpicks before, but it's not as good. Mom had the idea to drape the excess skin on top to keep the chicken breasts moist and develop a crispy crust. For flavoring, I coarsely ground dried rosemary with kosher salt, red clay sea salt, and pepper. I sprinkled the mixture underneath the skin (as well as rubbing the chicken with butter) and on top. The last chicken roll was placed in a parchment pouch. I've never cooked a chicken like this before, but it came out incredibly moist. Once the chicken is cooked, we let it rest, covered, so that the juices won't ooze out when sliced. The stuffed chicken tasted great and the figgy-leek filling was very tasty. It made for a great change of pace to turkey and didn't require much prep time or post feast clean up. Along with the chicken, we had rice pilaf cooked in a pressure cooker (post to come), roasted Yukon gold potatoes, homemade bread rolls, and homemade cranberry sauce. What did you guys have for Christmas dinner?

At the request of a reader, I wanted to share with you my sugar-free, gluten-free Healthy Sugar Cookies. That sounds like an oxymoron, right? Stay with me here. These cookies smell and taste just as good as the cut out cookies I've made every year since I was little using grandma's recipe. The aroma of sweet cookie dough (i.e. buttery vanilla-y goodness!) filled the kitchen as I gingerly rolled out the dough.

Gluten free chocolate peanut butter balls are the perfect finger food for your healthy holiday celebration --or any time of year! If you're in a pinch for time, I have something just for you. Here's a quick and easy gluten free cookie recipe that requires no baking. I really like making no bake (think no [...] Click on the title to be taken to the full post at www.elanaspantry.com. Please note: This email was sent from a notification-only address that cannot accept incoming email. Please do not reply to this message.