For my friend who asked, and anyone else curious about the recipes for the dishes mentioned in the previous post…
Wild Rice Dressing with Turkey Sausage, Apples, and Chestnuts
1 cup wild rice blend (such as Lundberg)
1 package (approx 7oz) of roasted peeled whole chestnuts, cut in half
1/2 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley
12 ounces mild Italian turkey sausage, casings removed, sausage crumbled
1 large onion
2 large Granny Smith apples, unpeeled, cored, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme
1 cup chicken broth
Olive oil for pan prep and sautéing
Optional soaked rice preparation – from the Nourishing Traditions cookbook:
For details about why soaking rice prior to cooking it improves digestibility, go here: http://www.westonaprice.org/food-features/497-be-kind-to-your-grains.html from the Weston A. Price Foundation. To be completely honest, I’m rarely organized enough to remember to do this in advance, but it does yield a milder, seemingly lighter-on-the-belly dish. If you’re not up for following the soaking instructions below, then cook the rice as directed – 1 cup rice blend to 2 cups water, bring to a boil and then reduce heat to simmer for 45 minutes.
Note: This recipe is double what you need for the dressing/stuffing. The other half can be used later in the week or frozen. Or served to family members who don’t like sausage (Hi Mom!).
2 cups brown rice
4 T lemon juice, kefir, or vinegar
4 cups warm filtered water
1 tsp sea salt
2 T olive oil (original recipe calls for butter or ghee but Scott can’t have that)
Preparation:
Place rice, whey and warm water in a large stainless steel or enameled pot and then leave in a warm place for at least 7 hours or more – I usually go 24 hours. Bring to a boil, skim, reduce heat, stir in salt and oil and cover tightly. Do not remove lid! Cook over lowest possible heat for about 45 minutes.
(DO AHEAD: Rice can be made 1-3 days ahead. Cover and chill.)
Preheat oven to 425°F. Rub olive oil or mist nonfat olive oil cooking spray on 13x9x2-inch glass baking dish.
Combine cooked rice, halved chestnuts, and chopped parsley in large bowl.
Heat 2 T olive oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add sausage and onion and sauté until meat is cooked through, stirring frequently and breaking up meat with fork (or knife, sledgehammer, etc. – turkey sausage can really stick to itself!), about 7 minutes. Add chopped apples and thyme and sauté 5 more minutes. Stir in chicken broth, scraping up browned bits. Pour sausage mixture over rice mixture in bowl; stir to combine. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Transfer mixture to prepared baking dish.
(DO AHEAD Can be made 1 day ahead. Chill.)
Bake until hot and liquid is almost absorbed, about 15 minutes – or longer, depending on how crispy you like the top.
Variations: I’ve made it without the chestnuts and it’s almost as good. Celery is nice, especially if you don’t have parsley on hand. Sautéed mushrooms are a great addition. Walnuts would be good too but you lose the low fat element at that point.
Thank you to Epicurious.com and The Nourishing Cook for the source materials for this recipe.
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Hidden Chard Smoothies/Popsicles
1 bag frozen blueberries
1-1/2 cups raw chard, rinsed well and stems removed
1-2 bananas
1-2 cups of yogurt, kefir, milk, or a combination
Agave syrup to taste
Put all ingredients in a blender and go to town. Purple color and intense flavor of blueberries, as well as sweetness from bananas, should totally mask chard flavor. If not, add more fruit. Drink as is or pour into molds and freeze.
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Almost Nonfat Chicken Salad
This is a guideline, proportions are to your liking. I suspect I used about 8oz of chicken and 1/3 cup of yogurt for three of us, but don’t hold me to that. I do know it was 1/2 pear…
Chop and combine:
Skinless chicken breast
Pear
Celery
Add:
Currants
Nonfat yogurt (Note: Do NOT use greek yogurt as it is too sour and not creamy enough. We like Straus.)
Splash or two of apple cider vinegar
Liberal drizzle of agave
Top with slivered almonds if desired.
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Chilean Sea Bass with Warm Green Bean Salad and Roasted Potatoes
Again, no recipe here. Just me, winging it.
2 7oz pieces of Chilean Sea Bass (I think we’re only supposed to eat this very rarely because it’s endangered or something but since Whole Foods was selling it, I’m going to assume they’ve vetted the moral risk for me.)
Olive oil
Lemon zest
Salt and pepper
Rub fillets with the other three ingredients and bake skin-side down in a glass pyrex at 425 degrees for about 15 minutes until just barely firm. Serve with lemon wedges.
Green beans
Olive oil
Champagne vinegar
Dijon mustard
Salt and pepper
Boil the green beans for 5 minutes or until just bright green. Drain. In meantime, whisk in a bowl: a splash of olive oil, a 1/6th smaller splash of vinegar, a small dot of mustard and the salt and pepper. Toss warm green beans in dressing and serve.
Red potatoes, cut into small pieces (sixths or eighths)
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
Toss together and spread on a baking sheet. Bake at 400 degrees or so until brown. These may take up to 40 minutes, so do them first (even though I listed them last).
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By the way, a word about “nonfat” olive oil cooking spray. It is only nonfat because of the way it is measured. Under pressure, the amount you can get out of the container when you hold the button down for 1/3 of a second (not kidding – read the label), that amount of fat is so small as to be negligible. Frankly, compared to how much comes out when I press down on that thing, I think I put less olive oil on when I just rub the pan with it or toss a little bit with whatever needs oiling.
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Today, we went out for Mexican food for lunch. Scott ate tortilla chips (as did I). Oh Mah GAWD! Fried food????
He did fine.
Which is not great for my need for our low-fat regime to be motivated by panic. If he does in fact completely recover his ability to digest EVERYTHING, will WE go back to our old ways? Stay tuned…
yum!