Author Archives: HSG

Lemon-Soy-Sesame Marinade

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Lemon-Soy-Sesame Chicken & Kale

My plan for Marinated Grilled Vegetables was cancelled due to inclement weather (rain and hail throughout the day), forcing me to punt.  I had some leftover quinoa and baked sweet potato that needed to be eaten, a bunch of kale, and some chicken tenders.  So the marinade intended for grilled veggies became the basis for sautéed kale and marinated chicken tenders.

For years I’ve used this Lemon-Soy Marinade with vegetables (mushrooms, squash, peppers, red onion, eggplant slices . . . ), as well as tofu and tempeh; I found it originally in Quick Vegetarian Pleasures by Jeanne Lemlin (her version adds scallions and uses rather odd amounts of some of the ingredients, but my proportions are similar to hers).  Only tonight did it occur to me to use it on chicken!  Absolutely perfect combination of the tang of lemon, the salty tenderizing of tamari, and the nuttiness of sesame.

Lemon-Soy-Sesame Marinade

Makes about 1-1/4 cups, enough for several dishes, so divide in half if only using for one dish.

  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 1/4 cup wheat-free tamari soy sauce
  • 3 Tablespoons lemon juice
  • 2 Tablespoons sesame oil
  • 3 garlic cloves, pressed or minced
  • 1-1/2 teaspoons grated ginger (or 1/2 tsp dry ground ginger)

Combine all ingredients in a bowl or jar and whisk or shake together.

Lemon-Soy-Sesame Chicken

Cut chicken tenders into bite-sized pieces.  Place in bowl and drizzle some of the marinade over— just enough to marinate all the pieces.  Stir to coat.  Let sit for at least 30 minutes (refrigerate if marinating longer than 30 minutes).  Heat skillet over high heat.  Toss in the chicken and its marinade.  Stir to cook until done, about 5-8 minutes.

Enjoy!

Lemon-Soy-Sesame Kale

Remove one bunch kale from its stems (save the stems for veggie stock).  (Tearing with your hands is the easiest, but you can also run a knife down each side of the stem.  Wash the leaves and tear into bite-sized pieces.  Drain.  Heat a skillet over high heat.  Coat lightly with vegetable oil.  Add kale (you may have to do this in bunches, it will wilt down quickly).  Cover and cook until softened.  Sprinkle on about 1/4 teaspoon red chili flakes (the kind folks use on pizza).  When the kale is almost done (from 10-20 minutes depending on how you like it) drizzle over a couple tablespoons of the Lemon-Soy-Sesame marinade.  Keep cooking until kale is done and most of the marinade has been absorbed or evaporated.

Enjoy!

Update June 15, 2012

Today I doctored the remaining marinade and used it with some vegetables.  To what was left after making the above, I added 2 Tablespoons tamari, 2 Tablespoons oil, 2 Tablespoons rice wine, a dash of sesame oil, 1 Tablespoon molasses (honey would work too), and another clove of garlic.  After marinating a few hours my veggies looked like this before going into the 375°F oven (I gave up on the grilling):

After 40 minutes in the oven:

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Cleanse, Cleanse, Cleanse!!!

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“Try for the next 24 [hours] to say yes to whatever lessons life is handing you.”
Today’s “Little Bird” message from the Brave Girls Club

Well, this morning (before even reading the BGC message) I finally said “YES” to the “Green Smoothie”.

Green Smoothie in Glass

I apologize for not posting in quite a while . . . some projects I’ve been putting off finally needed to be tackled, some health issues came up that I’m not yet ready to blog about, my few attempts at new GFDF recipes were frustrating failures that didn’t seem worth sharing . . . BUT, for the past week or so I’ve been “cleansing” on many levels and am starting to feel a bit better.

SO, this morning I decided . . . “time to try that Spring Green Smoothie you’ve been resisting”.

I used the Spring Green Smoothie recipe found here. (BTW, The Whole Life Nutrition® Kitchen site has LOTS of good info about cleansing and elimination diets . . . plus recipes!)

Also looked at this Parsley Juice introduction to “Hero Foods” after seeing Seamus Mullen on the Rachael Ray Show yesterday.

I don’t have a VitaMix, just a rather wimpy blender, so I halved the original Spring Green Smoothie recipe:

  • 1 pear
  • 1 apple
  • 1 kiwi
  • splash of lemon juice
  • 1″ piece of ginger
  • several handfuls of spring mix greens
  • water
  • dash of honey

I peeled the fruit, then cored and diced it.  I know the “smoothie gurus” would say to leave the peels on, but (1) the fruit I had wasn’t organic, so peeling makes me think I’m removing some of the pesticides, and (2) even the organic fruit is usually coated with “corn-based vegetable spray” (I have a corn allergy) . . . SO, I peel my fruit.

I peeled the ginger and cut it into four small pieces.

The fruit goes into the blender first . . . wasn’t sure this  blender was going to handle it, but eventually it worked.  Once the fruit was blended I added the greens and some water . . . and with a little patience and occasional mashing down . . . I ended up with this:

Green Smoothie in Blender

Had a small glass and was rather pleasantly surprised . . . The green slime didn’t feel as slimy as it looks . . . and though it tasted rather like grass clippings (no, I’ve never eaten grass clippings, but you know what I mean) . . . it was rather refreshing!

And I know, mine didn’t turn out the “Spring Green” color of the smoothie on the recipe page . . . probably because my Spring Mix contained some red/purple lettuce and I decided not to bother separating it out in order to use only “greens”.

Still not convinced it wouldn’t be easier to just eat a big bowl of salad  . . . but can see how making a big pitcher of this stuff and then drinking it throughout the day will be cleansing.

My “Life Cleansing Inspirational Quotation” is:

In pursuit of knowledge, every day something is acquired.
In pursuit of wisdom, every day something is dropped.
—Lao Tzu

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Adzuki Beans & Yam Hash

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Several months ago I bought some adzuki beans with the thought of making homemade gluten-free hoisin sauce and other asian condiments.  Never got around to that, but last week saw several recipes using adzuki beans over at nourishingmeals.com.

Considered a adzuki bean and rice salad, but then our weather got cold, so I went with Adzuki Bean and Yam Hash.  I’m not on the elimination diet, mentioned in the recipe, so I made a few minor changes; it turned out pretty yummy and healthy!

First, I soaked 1-1/2 cups of adzuki beans overnight.  Sources differ on whether or not to soak adzukis and how long to cook them (40 minutes – 2 hours!).  I used my never-fail  method of starting them on the stove top and then finishing them in the oven.  To help with the “beano problem” I rinsed the beans several times after soaking and then threw in a 5″ strip of Kombu seaweed during the last 20 minutes of cooking (mine took 60 minutes in the oven).

While the beans were cooking I cooked some brown rice using Saveur’s Perfect Brown Rice method.  When the beans were done, I took advantage of the hot oven to bake a large sweet potato.  The Adzuki Bean and Yam Hash recipe has you dice the yam very tiny and then cook it in the skillet, but it warns of possible burning, so it seemed easier for me to bake the potato (at least partially) ahead of time.  And while that was happening I chopped the red chard I used instead of the collard greens.

So, most of my prep work was all done early in the day so I could rest for several hours before doing the rest of the cooking.

Here’s my version of the recipe:

Adzuki Bean & Yam Hash

Ingredients

  • 2 Tbls extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 medium onion, diced
  • 1 large yam, baked, cooled, then peeled and diced
  • 1 tsp dried thyme
  • 2 tsp ground cumin
  • 2 cups cooked adzuki beans
  • 5 large red chard leaves, finely chopped*
  • Italian Herb blend and black pepper to taste
  • prepared Long Grain Brown Rice (to serve over)

Directions

  1. Heat a large skillet over medium heat.  Add the oil.  Once the oil is hot add the onions and a dash of salt.  Sauté for a few minutes until tender.
  2. Add the yams, thyme and cumin.  Sauté for a few minutes uncovered and then cover and cook for 5 more minutes (see Note).  Stir occasionally and check for sticking and/or burning.
  3. Add adzuki beans.  Sauté a few minutes more or until the beans are re-warmed, 5-10 minutes.  Add the chard.  Cover the pan and leave to steam and wilt the chard (about 5 minutes).  Sauté everything together.
  4. Add Italian Herb blend and pepper to taste.
  5. Serve over rice.

Makes approximately 4 servings.

Note

  • Cooking times will depend in part on whether your yams and beans are still warm (and thus just reheating).  Adjust as needed in order to get everything hot.

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Use your Tools!

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Yesterday I added a page on Cooking with CFS.  Later I realized that I didn’t mention how tools & equipment can simplify cooking.  Of course this is probably because I don’t have much fancy equipment (bread machine, stand mixer—mine broke trying to knead GF Bread Dough) and what I do have (food processor, mini-choppers, blender) I often don’t use because all those parts add more cleanup time . . .

But this morning I made some Carrot Ginger Soup and realized (given that everything gets puréed at the end) I could slice/shred all the veggies in the food processor and reduce my prep time.  It worked pretty well.  In fact, shredding the potatoes (I used one red and one sweet potato this time) also reduced the purée time at the end . . . so a double time/energy saver!

In addition, this recipe uses my favorite little ginger grater:

AND my immersion blender:

So always remember to use your tools!

Enjoy!

© 2012, Highly Sensitive Girl

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B is for Baseball, Brats, Buns

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Thursday was the start of the baseball season (at least for Chicago Cubs fans).  I knew I was going to have to figure out a GF, DF, and corn-syrup-free alternative to Hot Dogs/Brats . . . turned out to be trickier than I expected.  According to the guy at my local meat counter, in order to be a “brat,” and not some other kind of sausage, the sausage must contain milk . . . who knew?  Not me.  Seward Co-op has a great meat department where they make their own sausages, most of which I can eat . . . my favorite are Umbrian (with raisins & pine nuts) and Lime-Mango Chicken Sausage, but neither of those will do as a substitute for a baseball brat, and no-go on dairy-free brats  . . . so I ended up buying Polish Sausages instead.

I sautéed some onions and peppers and served the sausage over rice with the onions & peppers . . . but it wasn’t quite what you want to accompany a ball game.  So this morning I decided to try to bake some Gluten-Free Hot Dog Buns.  I used Annalise Roberts’ recipe from Gluten-Free Baking Classics.  The pan I have is an Italian Bread pan (rather than the thinner baguette pan recommended in the recipe) . . . so the buns were a bit flat . . . but they worked!!

So this afternoon I had sausage/onions/peppers on a GF bun while listening to the Twins game on the radio . . .

Sausage on a GF Bun

To paraphrase Field of Dreams:
Is this heaven?
No, it’s baseball.
No contradiction intended.

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