Broccoli Salad - Raw, vegan, allergen free, AND DELICIOUS!)

Broccoli Salad

I ran across The Chew for the first time the other day, and it was such a good show I've started recording it.  I had it on while starting dinner recently and this salad was a side item for a very allergy-unfriendly main course.  We just happened to have all the ingredients needed, so we made it that night.  It was absolutely delicious and the best part: VEGAN, RAW, AND HEALTHY!!!

Adapted from http://beta.abc.go.com/shows/the-chew/recipes/Broccoli-Slaw-Carla-Hall

Salad:
    4 small heads Broccoli with thick stems cut off
    2 Carrots (julienned)
    1/4 Red Onion (finely chopped)
    Raisins
    Pepitas (pumpkin seeds)

Dressing:
    2 Lemons (zest and juice)
    2 cloves Garlic (finely minced)
    2 teaspoons Dijon Mustard
    1-2 tablespoons Honey
    2 to 3 tablespoons extra virgin Olive Oil
    Salt and Pepper

Beef jerky: creepy meat or tasty treat?

Being the daughter of a chip company executive, you can bet that I've eaten my share of beef jerky.  Thanks to the lengthy ingredient list and maybe the wrestlers peddling Slim Jim, I had come to think of beef jerky as something unhealthy and gross.   A few years ago I finally tried some beef jerky made by a coworker - I could not get enough!  I vowed to make sure my next oven could dehydrate foods.  It was still a few more years until I finally tried his recipe, but it delicious! 

Although it tasted really good, I was never quite happy with the recipe ingredients.  Over the past year we’ve come to learn Lukas is allergic to not only 5 of the top 8 allergens, but also sesame, food additives and preservatives.  My coworkers’ recipe along with all the recipes I’ve found online use bottled teriyaki or sauces, which of course contain creepy additives.  There’s only one brand of jerky that meets all of these restrictions but it’s rather expensive.  It’s good, but sometimes I want a different style and taste. 

I decided to take my coworkers’ recipe and break it down to the basic pure ingredients and adjust it to our tastes.

First, bring the marinade to a boil and then simmer for 5 minutes.  Allow to cool.

Marinate: To keep the process as simple as possible, I purchase beef that is already thinly sliced.  Otherwise you have to partially freeze the meat to get it sliced thinly.  After cutting the meat into strips (or whatever you prefer), I separate each piece as I place it in the bag so that the marinade will be able to soak into each piece.  Pour in the cooled marinade, lay the bag flat, and mix the marinade throughout the meat.  Refrigerate overnight.

Prep the oven: I hate to waste a huge sheet of foil, so I place a few paaper towels across the oven and oven door to catch drips when I'm placing the racks in.

 Laying out the meat: I get my cooling racks handy and place the first rack on top of a cookie sheet to catch drips.  Once the first rack is full, I stack the next rack on top of the first and repeat.  

Spicing the meat: Next, I lightly season with cracked white pepper and garlic powder.  Make sure you hold the spice HIGH above the racks to ensure that you don’t douse the jerky!  Once the top rack has been spiced, I transfer it to the oven and begin spicing the next rack.  Repeat until all racks are spiced and placed on the oven racks above each other.   

Clean off any excess marinade off the cookie sheet (so that it won’t smoke) and place it in the bottom of the oven below the racks to catch the drips.

Food safety: At first I had some concerns about the food safety of beef jerky, but raising the temperature of the meat to 160 degrees kills all the pathogens.  Weave a meat thermometer through a thicker piece of meat.  Set the oven to 180 degrees until the thermometer temperature reads 160.  Then set the oven to dehydrate (or convection bake at 140, or transfer to dehydrator).  The jerky is done when it’s dry enough that you can rip off a piece easily, but before it snaps when you bend it.  Cool it and store it in sealed Ziploc bags.

Additive Free Beef Jerky Recipe

 

Marinade

3/8 cup organic soy sauce (contains no preservatives!)

3/8 cup organic vegan Worcestershire (I used Annie's from 14 Carrot)

¾ cup brown sugar

1/8 cup (2 TBL) honey

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 to 1.5 inch piece of ginger, peeled and minced

Spice

White Pepper

Garlic Powder

Killer Waffles

I grew up baking with my grandmother, and I've always been more comfortable with baking than cooking.  Because my son Lukas has so many food allergies, we can't eat out or buy pre-made foods.  These days I enjoy the challenge of adapting recipes for our tastes and diet restrictions.  Not every allergen free recipe is a success, but I'm so excited to have found a few fantastic new recipes!  Regardless of whether you have any diet restrictions, these recipes are absolutely worth trying.

Vegan Apple Cinnamon Ginger Waffle

The first is a tasty waffle recipe.  Since these have very little oil, make sure you spray the waffle iron DOWN!!!  The whole family LOVED these.  This recipe fills up my waffle maker 3 to 3 1/2 times, or about 12-14 small square waffles.  I like to have enough to freeze for a second breakfast.

Adapted from http://kblog.lunchboxbunch.com/2012/10/my-vegan-waffle-post-giveaway.html


2.5 cups King Arthur white wheat flour

3 cups soy milk

4 tsp lemon juice (approximately 1 lemon or 1/8 cup)

2 teaspoons ginger

3 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt (generous pinch)

4 tsp baking powder

1-3 tsp sun flower seed butter (warm up and mix with bananas)

2 very ripe bananas, mashed

½ to ¾ cup apple, finely diced

Orange zest

1-2 TBL sugar

1/8 cup sunflower oil

oil for waffle iron, coat well!  

My waffle iron takes about 7 minutes to cook each batch.  Watch for a decrease in steam.  Serve with fresh strawberries or whatever fruit suits your fancy!

Carrot Pumpkin Bread (Vegan and Nut Free)

 My son is allergic to milk, eggs, nuts, sesame, and some food additives.  One of our favorite safe breakfasts is muffins.  I've made vegan pumpkin bread many times before but recently switched from EnergE egg replacer to milled flaxseed.  Last Sunday, I forgot to pour in the egg replacer, and the bread turned out delicious anyway!  This morning, I woke up thinking about carrot bread.  I wanted to do something different and since we've started juicing, we usually always have to some carrots.  I decided to add some pumpkin to take the place of the eggs just in case it was the pumpkin that made it work out so well before.  This bread was even more delicious! 

This recipe made 1 tray of muffins and 1 small loaf.

Wet:

4 egg replacements (I used ~ 4 TBL pumpkin + ~1-2 TBL water (my batter seemed a little too thick)
2 cups sugar
1 1/3 cups oil (half safflower & half coconut)

Dry:
3 cups flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt 

Lastly:
3 cups grated carrots (food processor!)
1 ½ cups raisins

Preheat oven to 350 or convection 325.  Combine the pumpkin, water, sugar, oils in large bowl.  Sift dry ingredients together into small bowl.  Pour dry ingredients into wet and stir until just mixed.  Stir in carrots and raisins.  Pour into loaf pan or muffin tins.  Small muffins will take around 35 minutes at convection 325.  Loaf takes about 45 minutes.

Tip: don't trust my times - start checking it with a toothpick whenever it looks done!  (If it doesn't come out clean, it's not done.)

After the Fall

The Dump

January 11-13, 2013

We headed up to Blowing Rock NC to a small crag I had never been to called “The Dump”.  Many of the climbs there are less than vertical with a few sections overhanging.  We stayed on a lovely site at Grandfather Mountain Campground right on the river.   

Lukas enjoying the fire and the river at Grandfather Campground

Saturday morning it was misting rain but we headed to The Dump anyway.  We hiked around checking everything out and then headed back to the cars to hang out and waited for it to dry up enough to get on the rock.  There was one section of rock that we'd admired earlier in the day for its unique reptilian texture and it was the one section that seemed to be dry.  I was stoked that the rightmost route on it, Slimen Hymen", was just the grade I was looking to start out on - 5.10a.  With all of the cracks I'd anticipated plenty of options, but once I traversed left, I was immediately hit with a blank section.  I could see a great hold above but there was no foothold/handhold combination that got me to it.  After thinking it over, I realized the last good hold and the hold I couldn't reach were so juggy I could probably dyno to it.  Once I made that decision, I just had to decide which one of a hundred tiny cracks to place my feet on to get enough support to launch with the correct trajectory.  I launched and easily latched onto the out of reach hold.  I decided to start from the beginning, traverse over, get situated for the dyno and jump!  Once I got there however, all of the tiny cracks serving as footholds looked the same and I chose wrong twice.  I finally chose correctly on the third try.

Lukas spotting me on Slimen (10a)

After all this monkeying around below the first bolt, I considered switching off with Jason, but decided to go ahead and try to hang all the draws instead.  I progressed easily to the second bolt and clipped.  I'd heard the crux was down low, and I'm usually very comfortable onsighting 10a so I didn't even rest before going on towards the third bolt.  It became tenuous almost immediately however, and I momentarily considered retreating. So many thoughts swirled through mind. 

"Yes, I don't like slab, but that doesn't mean I can't do it!" 
"The holds are really thin here, but if I keep moving, it will get better above."
"I've fallen on slab before.  I had a perfect fall!  I'll be fine if I fall!"
But most of all, "My goal is to fall trying, not retreat when the going gets tough!"

I continued on.  I reached a point where I realized in the back of my mind that if I continued, there would be no way to retreat because the holds were so thin. I wasn't thinking about the fact that the last time I had climbed slab was two years ago, or the fact that falling on slab meant that I would most definitely hit the rock and maybe hard enough to hurt.  (For non-climbers, slab is less that vertical rock.  When you fall on less than vertical rock, you are guaranteed to hit the rock. If you push off evenly with your hands and feet, your hands and feet will hit the rock below resulting in a comfortable fall.)

It was at this point that my husband and belayer began asking me "Is it runout?", to which I screamed "DON'T SAY THAT!  DON'T EVER SAY THAT!"  I resolved not to let negative thoughts enter my mind, especially about the third bolt being runout.

At this point I was tired from my many attempts at the low crux but I had already made the decision to proceed beyond the point of no return, and found myself precariously perched left of the third bolt.  I was as high as I could go above my last piece of protection.  I was staring at the bolt to my right but felt so precarious that I didn't even feel comfortable reaching for my draw much less actually shifting right to reach the bolt to clip.  Apparently there was a good hold hiding somewhere that would have saved me, but I hadn't found it.  Suddenly I was peeling off the wall and screaming "Shit!"  (Sorry kids).  There was no time to push off evenly with hands and feet so as soon as the rope began to tighten, the slight twist of my body turned into a full 180 degree rotation.  There was nothing I could do; there was no way to stop it.  I slammed into a protruding ridge on the rock just above my right butt cheek.  It was extremely painful.  I had trouble just getting onto the ground, but standing hurt too.  Moving or using any muscles in that area was very painful.  Finally we started talking about getting me up.  When I was pulled up to standing, I didn't want to lay back down so some fellow climbers allowed me to put my arms over their shoulders and walk leaning heavily on them (thank you Jeff!).  A few times another kind gentlemen put me on his back until I got too tired and felt walking was safer (thank you Mark!)

Enjoying some medicinal Brandy

Within a few minutes I was feeling pretty happy, very loved, and relishing in the fact that at least I had gotten a GoPro video out of it!  (Click to check out the video.)

The next day I wasn’t able to wear a pack but since the hike is almost nonexistent, that wasn’t a problem.  I was so happy to be able to walk and climb, but I had no desire to lead on slab.  Jason was kind enough to put a few routes up for us.  Afterwards I had a nasty bruise (and I still have a small knot in that location 6 months later.)   

Noah on Homegrown (5.9+/5.10a)

February 2, 2013

Crowders Mountain

My first lead after the fall was Opinionated (5.9 at Crowders) and it felt TERRIBLE. Opinionated is one of those routes that can be completely easy or completely awkward depending on how you’re feeling that day.  One month after my whipper, it felt SUPER awkward.  I was really slow and I swear I almost had Elvis leg a few times. Aaron and I moved on to Master Beta, a route I had onsighted in May 2012. I definitely felt more confident and it flowed much better, but when I got the slightest bit nervous I stopped and rested rather than risking a fall. Still, I felt a lot better and more confident. Next I lead the Gimp.  It was pretty cool to run into Diab Rabie, the man who'd put up the Gimp years ago.  I’d done the Gimp once before and I had hung once, so I was more nervous about it than MB.  I still hung once and had to push down that falling fear again going to the anchors, but it definitely went better than I expected.  Afterwards, I played around on Fashion on TR since it shares anchors with Gimp.  I worked out beta for the first three bolts but it was getting cold and we decided to make it an early day.   I'm not there yet, but I hope to have my lead head back soon.