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I’ve been wanting to add more coconut oil to my diet for a while now. I cook with it almost exclusively and add it to the occasional smoothie. But from what I’ve seen from the literature, I need to start at about 2 tablespoons a day, and increase slowly up to about 5 to get the maximum health (and weight loss) benefit. I calculate I’m getting a good 1/2 tablespoon a day just from eating what I’ve cooked in it.
When it was time to put the Christmas decorations away for the year, I found the plastic mold from a box of Advent calendar chocolates hanging around. Although I like the flavor of coconut oil, it is difficult for me to eat plain because the texture just doesn’t feel right. One thing I can always eat plain, though, is butter! Yum! So, I melted equal parts of butter and coconut oil, washed up the mold and poured the delectable solution into the little hearts. Isn’t it cute? Each heart holds about 1/2 a tablespoonful of mixture. Can I eat two of these a couple times a day? Oh yes, I certainly can!
I’m still considering going grain-free. Anna commented on my Low Carbing It post with some really fascinating info that I’ve been researching. The more I study this issue, the more I think I need to cut out the grains. Totally at first, at the very least for a few weeks. But I’m pretty chicken about asking my family to go down that road with me. Funny, I didn’t think twice about offering them a raw meat meal, but a meal without bread just seems beyond the pale.
So, I’ll start with my coconut oil treats and see what happens.
This post is part of Real Food Wednesdays, hosted this week by Kelly the Kitchen Kop.
Fellow food traveler, fear not the meek parsnip! I had seen the long albino carrot thing in the grocery store before, but never tried it. I read about their preparation method in Nourishing Traditions and decided to give them a whirl.
The Long, Albino Carrot thing
I’m glad I did! I scraped them, like you would a carrot, and julienned it, like you would a carrot, and sauteed them slowly in butter, like you would a carrot. And they tasted…not unlike carrots! There was a definite carrot flavor in there, but it was tempered with a lovely anise-like licorice flavor. This root veggie will be a welcome addition to our winter local fare.
Sauteeing gently in butter
Okay, so the idea of planning a category of food a day is a good one, but sometimes life intervenes. For example, this weekend I was straightening up my food storage area in the garage with Christy. Our garage stays a pretty even temperature year-round, probably because it is underground on three sides. I found some dried white beans as I was straightening a shelf and handed them to Christy saying, “Here, take these upstairs to the kitchen. I’m going to soak them for baked beans later this week.” I guess I was mumbling, or thinking out loud or something, because she proceeded to bring the beans up and soak them herself! I didn’t notice what was in the bowl (she covered it just like she’s seen me do) until I got out the soaked flour for today’s pancakes.
Pancakes for breakfast are such a mixed blessing. I don’t like making pancakes for breakfast because it can take a whole hour to cook as many as I need for my family. Someday I’d like to find a gigantic cast-iron griddle that will work on my electric stovetop, but I’ll bet it’s something I’d have to invent. I like making pancakes for breakfast because it gives me a whole hour standing at the stove to do prep for other meals between flips. I boiled eggs for egg salad, flip; I checked on my fermenting foods in the cupboard, flip; I rinsed my sprouting wheat berries and sunflower seeds, flip; I chopped and sauteed a couple onions and garlic cloves, flip, to which I added the drained soaked beans and got it boiling, flip. I even managed to do the dishes between flips! After everyone had all the pancakes they wanted, I put the leftovers on a cookie sheet in a 150° oven until they were crispy, which took about two hours.
I added some tomato paste, soy sauce, maple syrup, molasses, apple cider vinegar, red pepper flakes and dry mustard to the beans and scooped it into my slow cooker. It cooked away on High until dinner. They were good but something was…missing. Hm. I’ll have to think on that. I’ve never been able to make baked beans like my mother’s, partly because she uses white sugar and brown sugar and molasses and maple syrup and that’s just way too much for me. Don’t get me wrong, they are wicked good, but it kind of takes the health benefits away from the beans to drown them in that much sugar.
The crispy cakes went over well with all but John, who turned up his nose at the idea of pancakes for snack. Christy said, “It’s like having honey on a spoon, then eating the spoon!” Rose ate four of them, but not with honey, with blackberry fruit-only preserves. John has put in a request for scrambled eggs with cheese and toast for breakfast. That with a cup of his special eggnog should give him a really good start on the day tomorrow. I think I’ll go grate that cheese tonight, though, for safety’s sake!
