Food Friday: G-BOMBS Plus Meal

When I was reading a Dr. Joel Furhman book, whose title escapes me at the moment, but it might have been The End of Diabetes this time,  I first learned about G-BOMBS.  I thought that idea was a good one.

G-BOMBS is short for:
Greens
Beans
Onions
Mushrooms
Berries
Seeds

All these foods are great for fighting cancer as well as so many other chronic diseases.  I decided to make a meal with G-BOMBS and see if I could get Dear One to eat it.

When I made this I very carefully wrote down the "recipe".  I thought I put it in my Day One journal, but I do not find it there...so this is my memory of what I put in the pan:

1 red onion, finely diced

8 white mushrooms, peeled and VERY FINELY chopped

1 red bell pepper and 1 yellow bell pepper, chopped

1 can red beans in chili sauce

1 cup brown rice cooked in Instant pot with 1 cup water for 28 minutes on HIGH then release pressure naturally (yes, I use the same amount of water as rice when cooking in the Instant Pot and it comes out perfectly.  I just about always cook on HIGH for 28 minutes and release pressure naturally.  Sometimes I add a little miso paste to the water for flavor.)

1 bunch of kale fresh from the garden, washed, de-stemmed, finely chopped then put in the Instant Pot on top of the rice and water.  Yes, it is going to be cooked to heck but that is my aim.  I want it as invisible as possible for obvious reasons!

1 heaping Tablespoon chopped garlic

1 teaspoon chili powder

1 teaspoon ground cumin

While the rice and kale were cooking, I water sautéed the onions, peppers, and mushrooms until they were very tender.  At that point I tossed in the garlic and spices for about two minutes.  

Added the can of beans with liquid and stirred well.  Added in the cooked rice and kale and mixed until well conglomerated.  (Be sure the heat is on low.)  Covered the pan and let simmer for 5-10 minutes for flavors to mix.  Passed a little salt at the table for those who love salt.

We had blackberries for dessert.  The only G-BOMB we did not have was seeds but we could have thrown in some pumpkin or sunflower seeds in either the meal or on the berries...but we did not.  Also, I knew Dear One would take the peanut butter jar and a sleeve of crackers up to the "man cave" sometime during the evening.

All in all, it was a successful meal.

Food Friday: Rice and Beans with Cheese

We had invited the young missionaries to eat dinner with us.  M had texted me a recipe she made recently called Cheesy Rice and Beans. It looked simple and easy.  Since I was also making Brownie Trifle and Homemade Whole Wheat Tortillas, I thought simple and easy would be good.  It was!

In large oven proof pot (I used our five-quart cast iron dutch oven), brown one large sweet onion diced, 2 large cloves garlic, sliced then chopped, and one red and one yellow bell pepper, cored, seeded, and diced.  This will take 5-10 minutes.

In the meantime put rice cooking in pot-in-pot in your Instant Pot.  This means put 1 1/2 cups water in the inner pot of your Instant Pot then place the trivet on top.  In a smaller pot that you can remove from the Instant Pot put 1 cup long grain brown rice and 1 cup water.  Yes, 1 cup water.  Put on cover and cook on HIGH pressure for 30 minutes then let release pressure naturally for 15 or so minutes.  Mine was longer since I forgot about it in the heat of the other things I was cooking.

Drain one 15-ounce can of black beans and rinse.

When the rice is cooked, add it and the beans to the pot with the vegetables.  Stir gently then add 1/2 cup or more of your favorite mild salsa and 2 cups grated cheese. I was not going to add the cheese but at the last minute decided to.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  I did not add any of either salt or pepper.

This is what is left over.  We were able to send another container home with the missionaries.

The whole wheat tortillas were not ideal since I only put in a little salt. I think in future I will put in the correct amount of salt then only eat part of a tortilla if I am worried about salt intake.

This meal, with the added bonus of individual brownie trifles(not the best idea I ever had due to the individual containers I used being hard to get the trifle out of...silly me.), together the beans, rice, cheese, tortillas, brownie, chocolate pudding, and whipped cream had a TERRIBLE effect on blood sugar.  Never again. It was a tasty meal but not THAT good.  I wonder how many days it will take my body to recover from putting that bad things in it along with the good things.  Well, we shall see.

I will certainly make the rice and beans again, but I will leave out the cheese.  No need for all that artery-clogging fat.  It did not add that much flavor to be worth the risk of heart attack.

Food Friday: Quick and Easy Light Vegetable and Bean Soup

We had about 1/2 cup of dried white beans sitting on the counter who were just dying to be used up.  I put them in a bowl of water and let then sit overnight. And then one more night, then rinsed them really well and dropped them into the Instant Pot.

Two medium red potatoes, skins on,  were diced, one sweet onion was diced, and two cloves of garlic were chopped and all were thrown into the Instant Pot inner liner bowl.

Next I threw in probably 1/2 cup of uncooked macaroni and 2 Tablespoons of Kirkland's No Salt Seasoning.  Finally I put in 1 1/2 quarts of homemade vegetable broth.

Because I doubted if Dear One would buy into this "using up of things we had lying around waiting to be used",  I set the timer on high pressure for 45 minutes. I did not care if the soup was mushy.  I like mushy.

When the soup had cooled down naturally for 15 minutes, I checked it out.  It was so lightly flavored that I stirred in 2 teaspoons of chicken bouillon powder. It tasted really good to me at that point.  (As you can tell by this, I am a salt person...) . Dear One did eat part of a bowl, but he had already eaten scalloped potatoes and Gardein Non Chicken tenders, so he was not too hungry.  No problem.  More for me.

Munchie Monday: Quick and Easy Southwestern Salad

We plan to have a potluck lunch in the office the Wednesday after Transfers.  This is a nice idea.  We put the phone on answering machine for half an hour (unless SOMEONE forgets to turn it back on when lunch is over...it could happen....) and just enjoy each other's company and yummy food.

This time we had hot Costco pizza,  chicken pasta salad,  cut fruit, bagels with three kinds of cream cheese (have you ever had cinnamon and brown sugar?  Deathly...), a gorgeous red velvet cake with ganache and lovely flower decorations on top and dribbling down the sides, and Southwestern Salad.

This salad was basically a can of red beans, drained and rinsed, a can of whole kernel corn, drained and rinsed,  half a sweet onion very finely diced, and one red bell pepper, finely diced.

All these were put into a large bowl and covered with Southwestern Dressing.  To make this the quickest and easiest, you can buy that sort of salad dressing. 

Pour the dressing over the salad ingredients and let it marinate overnight.  When ready to serve, bring it to the table with a big bowl of chopped greens for people to put on their plates then put a scoop of the vegetable mixture on top, then more dressing, if desired.  It was pretty good salad.  Don't ask Dear One, though, because he though it was too iffy to try.  No problem.  More for the rest of us.

The dressing I made:

All these ingredients I added to our blender:
1 cup loosely packed cilantro, including stems
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
2 cloves garlic
2 Tablespoons lime juice
2 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
A little coarse salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Fortunately I tasted it.  Not great, but I was committed to it since I was tired and did not want to go out to the store late at night--well, it was about 8 PM.  That is too late to go out to the store.  For me. 

Because I was unsure if there would be enough dressing, I added another half cup yogurt.  Because this was also so acidic I also added, horror of horrors, one Tablespoon of sugar.  Made all the difference.

It was good enough to take to the potluck.  People said nice things, but then, people always say nice things. Mostly.  I was not embarrassed by it, and because there were only six of us, there was leftover food to take home. I have enjoyed it!

Munchie Monday: Vacation Food--The Perfect Simple Salad

On vacation it can be difficult to eat the way you normally do.  Especially when there are different views as to what makes good vacation food.  In my case, I eat salad every day.  At every meal, if possible.  It is a little harder on vacation depending on the accommodation's facilities.  It turns out this time that rather than the mini-refrigerator/coffee pot we were told to expect in our unit, we have a mini-refrigerator, coffee pot for herb tea, a microwave, some base cabinets and a sink in a nice counter. Things are looking up!  I had brought our Instant Pot, because I assumed somewhere in the room there would a surface with an electrical outlet so we could at least heat up soup or something.

So, today I am hoping to go to a grocery store to find:
Lacinato (i.e. dinosaur) kale
Broccoli
Sweet onion
Canned red beans
Something for Dear One to eat, either in the Instant Pot or the microwave if he wants hot food.

Another thing I am thinking is to get:
Canned chick peas
Garlic Paste
Ripe avocado
Tahini
Lemon or lime juice
Roasted red peppers
A large bowl at Dollar Tree or some such place

The idea for this last list is to  see if I can make some Avocado Roasted Pepper Hummus.  Maybe.

If anyone has had any luck with different "vacation foods" in a unit without full cooking equipment, I would love to know what you made and how it turned out.  Oh, and if the family liked it, too!

Food Friday: Quick, Easy Beans and Chicken

The last two days we have been traveling.  I have not wanted to buy fast food, so I made my own.  We stopped at a store near our lodging last night and purchased a can of Goya Red Beans and a package of Perdue Chicken Shorts.  This morning for breakfast I drained the beans, chopped up the chicken and put it on some Subway Layered Salad.  It was quick.  It was easy.  It was delicious.  AND there was no fat involved as my health demands significantly less fat than I have been eating.  PLUS there is plenty left over for another two or three meals.  Bonus!

You might want to try this.  I am thinking it would be good with some Spicy Peanut sauce as a dressing....

Munchie Monday: Breakfast Salad Today!

Don't you just love a great breakfast salad?!  I do.  You may not but there is nothing like starting the day with some good vegetables and healthy protein.

This is what I had in my breakfast salad:

2 cups iceberg/carrots/cabbage lettuce mixture
2 cups spring lettuce and baby spinach
1/2 cups chick peas
1/8 of a red onion, sliced thinly
1 carrot, sliced
1 celery rib, sliced
2 Tablespoons Spicy Peanut Salad Dressing

What I did:

Chopped the greens.  Added the chopped greens to a large bowl.  Added the remaining vegetables then topped with the salad dressing.  Stirred it all up.  Ate it with pleasure and a certain amount of feeling virtous as I realized it was healthier than many breakfasts I have had.

Doesn't that look pretty?! And yummy!  The only glitch was that the red onion happened to be rather spicy this time.  I gave the last few shreds to the white-tail deer who frequent our back yard.

Food Friday: Homemade Veggie Burger Sandwich!

We eat veggie burgers around here.  I am still trying to make one that works as far as flavor, texture, ease of construction, and enjoyment.

This is the one I made this week.

This picture was an open-faced sandwich that I had to start eating with a fork.  It was delicious!  The layers were: toasted one hundred percent whole wheat bread, smear of Homemade Balsamic Mayonnaise, one Roma tomato sliced sort of thin, slice of sweet onion, Homemade Veggie Burger, sauerkraut on top then sprinkled with Montreal Steak Seasoning.  It was so good and stuck with me for hours.

Here is how I made the veggie burger.  I am sorry I don't have a really specific recipe just the method, but the method worked.

We had some leftover squash soup, some leftover rice glop (my term for rice and other ingredients that have become a more or less solid mass since I failed to stop the cooking in time), some leftover cooked pinto beans.

Started heating our cast iron skillet on the stove over medium heat then made the veggie burger mixture.

In a large bowl I placed the very flavorful squash soup--about 2 cups of it, 1 1/2 cups of the cooked rice, and 2 cups of cooked pinto beans. I used a potato masher to smush them up until I was satisfied with the texture.  Some of the beans were still mostly whole.  At this point I added about 3 Tablespoons of leftover thick pizza sauce, about a teaspoon of Montreal Steak Seasoning, and a good big glug of Worcestershire sauce. Then I threw in about 2 cups of old-fashioned rolled oats. I mixed these all together very well.

By this time the cast iron frying pan was hot so I added a Tablespoon of coconut oil and let it melt.  Using a 1/2 cup portion scoop, I scooped four mounds of the veggie burger mixture into the pan, pushing down on each mound with the back of the scoop to make a nice neat round burger about one-half inch thick.  I let them cook, still over medium heat, for 2-3 minutes or until I thought they were solid on the bottom. I then flipped them, cooked them longer on the second side then served to Dear One along with French fries. I had some mashed potatoes and salad with mine.

The upshot:  these taste really good.  When they came off the frying pan they were too soft for my Dear One's palate but he did think they tasted good.  This was for lunch.  At supper time I got the two leftover ones out of the refrigerator and found that they had become much more firm. Yay!  When I warmed up one for my own supper (Dear One did not want a repeat...usual story there...) it softened up again but still worked as you can see on the sandwich photo.

There was enough of the "batter" to make four more veggie burgers the next day using a smaller scoop, which was quite large enough.  I felt justified in eating two of them!  After all, what could be wrong with beans, rice, oatmeal, and squash?!

This is still not the perfect veggie burger (especially since I don't have an accurate list of all the ingredients in all the components) but is on the way to getting there. Something about the oatmeal firms them up, I think.

Munchie Monday: 5 Bean Chili, Quickly!

We had a Church fall festival where the potluck food theme was chili.  For the first time ever I just took cans and seasonings from the pantry.  It turned out great. Well, at least I liked it, and the pot came home emptier than it was!


Vegetarian Chili
1 tablespoon beef broth powder
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon mixed onion and garlic granules (50/50 mix)
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
2 cans tomato sauce, 14-15 ounce size
2 cans kidney beans, 14-15 ounce size
1 can black eyed peas, 14-15 ounce size
1 can white beans, 14-15 ounce size
1 can chickpeas, 14-15 ounce size
1 can cannellini beans, 14-15 ounce size
1 large chopped white onion
1 large chopped red bell pepper
3 cloves chopped garlic

Sauté the onion, bell pepper and garlic in Instant Pot until the onions are translucent and the bell peppers are softened.  Don't put the garlic in until the onions are nearly done. VERY IMPORTANT:  when using the sauté feature on the Instant Pot, you need to stand over the pot, stirring the vegetables with a long handled wooden spoon constantly, or just about, because they can easily get away from you and burn.  Ask how I know...

Add seasonings to the cooked vegetables  to bloom for a few moments.  Add tomato sauce then beans without draining.  Stir well.  Heat to boiling then let simmer on Slow Cook.