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This site is designed with brand new cooks in mind. Because of that you will see a lot of items linked here. For an experienced cook it is easy to recognize what the difference between a pot, a sauce pan, a casserole, etc. means. But if you are brand new to the cooking from scratch idea it can be confusing. All products linked are meant to give you a clear idea of what kinds of items I am referring to. These items linked also represent brands that I am familiar with, that I have found to be high quality and I find them to be fairly priced and long lasting for regular use.

For pots and pans I prefer the quality of Circulon brand above higher priced brands and their longevity above lower priced brands. For glass bowls and bake ware I prefer Pyrex. For low priced kitchen ware I prefer Norpro. For smaller quantities of dried goods I prefer Bob's Red Mill, which I can find at all of my local stores. For larger quantities I prefer ordering from Barry Farm. I often use the bulk section at my stores as well. While it is certainly less expensive to make stock at home, it is far more convenient to purchase it. I like Pacific Natural Foods and Imagine Foods low sodium broths. These suggestions are designed to make your food preparation easier and affordable. You'll also be able to accurately duplicate the recipes on this site and the meals seen on Frugal Feeds Videos. Look for all of these products and kitchen items at your local stores or click on the links and it will take you to where you can buy them online. (Although many of the items will cost more with shipping than they will if you can find them at your local store).
Showing posts with label miner's lettuce. Show all posts
Showing posts with label miner's lettuce. Show all posts

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Frugal Feeds | Raw Diet Day 4

Raw Diet Day 4:




My appetite has returned and although I haven't eaten tons of food I haven't felt unusually hungry. After eating I didn't feel hungry for about five hours each time.

For breakfast I made some juice. It was really tasty but a tad too sweet. Next time I think I would use a green apple in place of one of the pears or add 3 or 4 leafy vegetable greens like kale or collards to cut the sweetness down.

Juiced 4 Medium Carrots with tops
2 Large Bosc Pears
1 inch Ginger

Made about 20 ounces.

For lunch I was pretty busy and not very hungry so I had a very light lunch.

About 1 cup of green grapes
1 avocado with sea salt
2 cups refrigerator tea steeped with stevia

For dinner I wanted to use up some mint and cilantro I had in the fridge and also use the butter lettuce from yesterday. Spring rolls came to mind so I julienned some jicama, cucumber and peeled sweet potato. I laid them on top of whole butter lettuce leaves, laid on some julienned mint leaves, julienned basil and whole cilantro leaves next. I topped those with snow peas and mung bean sprouts. I rolled them more like a taco than a spring roll and put about a tablespoon of dipping sauce on each. They were excellent but a little too drippy, so have a plate underneath and a napkin close by. :D

For the dipping sauce I whisked together a scant 1/4 cup Braggs Amino Acids, a Tablespoon of ginger, minced, half of a serrano chili pepper, minced, one medium clove of garlic, minced, juice of one lime and about two Tablespoon of raw honey. Using butter leaf lettuce it takes about four rolls to make a meal. Using a larger leaf type three rolls would probably do it. With collard greens it might just be two.                                                                                                                                           


I found that the butter lettuce tore fairly easily when I bit into the crunchy vegetables so for the next one I made I tried purple kale. It held together very well but wasn't as delicious as the butter lettuce. Next time I think I will use either collard greens or romaine.



Spring rolls are very flexible with ingredients. You want some crunchy vegetables that are julienned and some juicy vegetables. The amount you fill it with is really dependent on the wrapper you are using. Butter lettuce leaves are much smaller than collard greens so the amounts would vary.

Wrappers could be butter lettuce, chard, chinese cabbage, collard greens, red lettuce or romaine. I think if you used the smaller butter lettuce leaves it would work better.

Traditionally Vietnamese spring rolls include mint, basil and cilantro but you could use just one of those or use entirely different herbs. I think a small amount of lemon balm julienned would be nice, as would nasturtium leaves. You could use celery leaves, chives, dill, fenugreek greens, garlic chives, parsley, peppermint, a small amount of summer savory or winter mint.

For the sauce you want something salty, something sweet, something sour and something spicy plus a little garlic and ginger. If you need more liquid you could juice a cucumber and add the cucumber juice to the sauce. If you do, omit the cucumber from the ingredients in the spring roll.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Frugal Feeds | Raw Diet Day 2

Raw Diet Day 2:

Although my expectation for what I would want to eat yesterday was based on eating lightly it ended up being too much food for where my appetite was. I just wasn't hungry so I ended up only having the green smoothie again at lunch. In the afternoon I had a banana and some refrigerator tea. For dinner I shared some leftover pumpkin soup with my girls and had two small avocado's with sea salt later that night. My appetite has been even less today so I have had two banana's and one cup of seaweed salad.  Here are the recipes of what I have eaten.

Green Smoothie

1 cup of water
1 large apple, diced
1/2 inch of ginger
1 cup of miner's lettuce, chopped
4 leaves of kale, chopped
1 banana


Place ingredients one at a time into a blender. Blend each ingredient until it is chopped into small bits, adding the next ingredient when those bits are small. Blend on high speed for a few minutes until it is fully smooth. Add more water if necessary to reach the consistency you want. One serving.

Vegan, not raw, Thai Pumpkin Soup

1 15 ounce can Natural Value Pumpkin Puree
1 14 ounce can Roland Organic Coconut Milk
1-3 Tablespoons Thai Kitchen Red Curry Paste
Scant 1 Tablespoon Turbinado Sugar

Place ingredients into a medium sized pot over medium heat. Depending on how spicy you want it, add 1-3 Tablespoons of curry paste. Whisk until smoothly incorporated. Stir constantly as it warms up (if you do not stir it constantly it will splatter terribly). Heat until it is the temperature you want, but don't bring it to a boil. Pumpkin soup holds heat very well so if you bring it to a boil you will want to wait ten minutes before serving it or it will be too hot to consume. Four servings.

Refrigerator Tea

In a one quart canning jar place 2 Good Earth Tea bags and 1/4 cup dried stevia leaves or a few drops of stevia liquid. Holding the bag tag, fill with water. Place canning lid and ring on mouth of jar and tighten. Place in the refrigerator for one day. Remove from refrigerator. Place a small strainer on the top of your glass and strain. Serve. Four servings.

If you want to forgo the stevia you can try Good Earth Sweet and Spicy teas, also in red tea or caffeinated. It is naturally sweetened with cinnamon and herbs so you won't need to add any sweetener.

Plain Kombu Salad

1 cup kombu, cut into thin strips
2 cups water
1 roma tomato, chopped
Black pepper

Soak kombu for 30 minutes for a chewy texture or for 12 hours for a soft texture. Drain. Toss with chopped tomato. Add black pepper to taste. One serving.


For dinner today I suspect that I will eat the salad that intended to eat yesterday and I plan on eating an orange at snack time although I still do not have an appetite and it is already mid-afternoon. If I do have the salad it will be composed of romaine, miner's lettuce, red cabbage, red leaf lettuce, alfalfa sprouts, avocado, lemon juice, roma tomatoes, green olives and red, yellow and orange bell peppers with some sea salt and fresh ground black pepper. This is one of my favorite salad combinations so I am sure I'll get a picture up of it in the near future.