Luck o’ the Irish

St. Patrick’s Day has come and gone, but it left me with something green, crispy and delicious to snack on:

Kale chips.

It must have been the luck of the Irish that was granted upon me that day. Kale chips are a pain to make, and I went through a process of trial and error for at least five batches prior to my last attempt. The leaves are rather robust, but adding too much heat and time can burn them in a matter of minutes. I finally came upon a Food Network recipe by Mellisa D’Arabian that is perfect.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/melissa-darabian/crispy-kale-chips-recipe.html

Gather a big bunch of kale, olive oil and salt. Photo by Shayna Tanen

Slice the rib out of the kale. It’s hard and doesn’t make for good eats. Photo by Shayna Tanen

Coat the leaves generously in olive oil and spread them in a single layer on a baking sheet. Pop the tray in the oven at 275 degrees for 10 minutes. Photo by Shayna Tanen

After 10 minutes, flip the kale around. Return the baking sheet to the oven and allow the kale to cook for 10 more minutes. Photo by Shayna Tanen

Here’s what you do:

• Gather your ingredients: kale, olive oil and salt.
• Cut the rib out of each piece of kale. Just run your knife along the rib on either end; it comes off easily.
• Cut the kale into even pieces, about an inch each. Coat the leaves in olive oil and place them on a tray lined with tin foil or parchment paper. You don’t have to do that, but I don’t have a dishwasher, and I hate cleaning dishes so the foil eliminates dish-washing.
• Place the kale in the oven at 275 degrees. Let them go for 10 minutes, then take them out and gently flip them and move them around. Put the kale back in the oven and cook for 10 more minutes and…
• You’ve got kale chips! Toss ’em in salt to season them. I also like to sprinkle paprika on the kale, just for a little something more.

Kale chips are oddly addictive. I ate that whole bowl immediately after I cooked it. When it comes to newly discovered SCD legal snacks, I just can’t help myself.

I bought that batch of kale at the Union Farmers Market (featured on my last post), and I plan to buy more this week! If you haven’t tried kale chips, give them a try. And bake them yourself. I think you’ll find that the process is fun, plus it’s much cheaper than buying them in the store.

Keep eating green Gainesville!

Union Street Farmers Market a Haven for Dieters

Each and every Wednesday of the year, the farmers market comes to town. When you show up, it feels like you’re at the annual county fair: there’s food, animals and some unabashedly weird people.

Children dance and play next to the stage at Bo Diddley Plaza, where locals play live music during the farmers market. Photo by Shayna Tanen.

The Union Street Farmers Market is a venue where local food producers and artisans unite, each Wednesday (rain or shine) from 4-7 p.m. at Bo Diddley Plaza in downtown Gainesville. Typical vendors sell local fruits and vegetables at decent prices, which is expected at any reputable farmers market.

But the Union Street Farmers Market also harbors vendors who stretch the imagination and taste buds in the form of vegan, gluten-free and paleo tasties for their alternative customers.

Take “Jose’s Tempeh,” the pet name for the Tempeh Shop, for example. Jose Caraballo formed the Tempeh Shop in Gainesville and is joined in partnership by his son and daughter. Caraballo’s son, Damian Caraballo, who has been working with his father for six years already, was selling the family tempeh on Wednesday.

Tempeh is fermented soybeans. The way Damian Caraballo explained it, tempeh is a product of soybeans so the process starts off with soybeans, but after fermentation the soy is basically all eaten up.

Damian Caraballo said that his father has been making tempeh since 1985, even when it was not popular in the U.S. Tempeh is actually an ancient food in Indonesia, but it took Americans a long time to catch on.

America’s health kick and rising animal-consciousness seems to be giving the Tempeh shop good business, though. “A lot of people really appreciate the natural way it’s made,” said Damian Caraballo.

“Jose’s Tempeh” is certified organic and contains no GMOs. Damian Caraballo said his favorite product of the Tempeh Shop is the ready tempeh, which is pre-cooked and super convenient.

Check out their website for more info and more places to find the Tempeh Shop’s food: http://www.thetempehshop.com

Another awesome, entirely unique product sold at the farmers market is cashew cream cheese. Cashew – what? That’s right, cashew cream cheese is a non-dairy, non-soy, gluten-free cheese.  It doesn’t taste exactly like cream cheese, but it’s close with its smooth texture, soft white color and indisputable salty tang.

Mouskowitz’s cashew cream cheese is salty and creamy and oddly close to cheese, minus the cow milk. Photo by Shayna Tanen.

The cheese is made by soaking organic cashews in a homemade probiotic liquid called rejuvelac. What business could make such an intriguing, earth-and health-friendly product but Mouskowitz Earthly Delights?

“We’ve really taken off locally here in town,” said Christina Oh, a partner in Mouskowitz and a vegan chef.

Oh says the cheese is very versatile. It can be used in veggie lasagna, soups, salad dressing, as a dip and so much more.

Look out for recipes that I’ve made with this cream cheese (namely spaghetti squash casserole), and check out Mouskowitz Earthly Delights on Facebook for more info and recipes.

Last, but not least, is Wild Man Foods, a paleo vendor that specializes in wild, sustainable meat. The table was covered in dried, smoked meats and fishes and pickled and fermented vegetables.

Sarah Cervone was manning the booth on Wednesday. She follows the paleo diet but wanted to emphasize that to her, paleo is a lifestyle, not a religion. “I see it more as a lifestyle than a particular body type,” she said.

Wild Man Foods is a new, unpretentious business. Its philosophy is similar to Cervone’s: Eating paleo is healthy, but there’s more to life than meat freezers and rock climbing.

Visit http://www.wildmanfoods.org to learn more about “paleo products for modern people.”

Most of the time I can find everything I need to eat for the week at Trader Joe’s. But, like that feeling you get before the county fair comes to town, there’s a lingering emptiness in my stomach that can only be filled with out-of-the-ordinary things.

Unlike carnival fare, you cannot fill your belly with fried Oreos, corn dogs or exotic insects at the farmers market. What you can get, though, is fresh, local, whole foods that satisfy a pesky, adventurous food craving.

Flashback: Spring Break Eats Survival Guide

Spring break is that wonderful time in a college student’s life when you get a whole week to do anything but think about school. Consequently, when my thoughts are away from homework and exams, they are almost always dwelling on food.

Going home on a diet can be tough, though, when your parents love pasta, pizza and sandwiches. It’s even tougher when your best friend from home is a vegetarian and supplements her diet with carbohydrates like bread, and all you can do is supplement your diet with meat.

So here is a guide to my happy-medium: how I cook for myself and for my friends and family over spring break.

1. Chili

This one goes out to my dad, who just loves chili to death. Chili is like SCD heaven: you can make a great chili without leaving out any integral ingredients or compromising. I like my chili with just beans, meat, tomatoes and spices, which makes sticking to the SCD very easy. My family has been making the same chili since I was a child, and I have not had to change it because of my diet restrictions.

The recipe comes from an old magazine (at least 10 years old). I’ve altered it a bit though.

• 1 onion, roughly chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
• 1 pound of ground meat, your choice of meat
• 2 tbsp. chili powder
• 1 tsp. ground cumin
• 1/4 tsp. cayenne, less or more depending on how spicy you like it
• 1/8 tsp. cinnamon (I know it sounds weird but it’s awesome.)
• 1 28-oz. can San Marzano tomatoes, crushed
• 1 16-oz. can kidney beans
• 1 16-oz. can black beans
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• black pepper

1. The prep is easy. Chop up the onion and throw it into a large, hot pot with oil. Cook on medium heat for about five minutes, then throw in the chopped garlic.
2. Next comes the ground meat. Crank the heat up just a bit so the meat gets brown.
3. Once the meat is mostly cooked through, add all the spices and allow them to heat up with the meat and toast in the pan.
4. Add your tomatoes. I use San Marzano tomatoes because I know nothing is added to them, and San Marzano tomatoes are always the sweetest, reddest canned tomatoes. Put the salt and pepper in now so they can flavor the chili while it cooks.
5. Leave your chili cooking on medium-low, and let it go for about two hours. Add the beans about 20 minutes before serving. A hint with the beans is to CHECK THE LABELS. Most canned beans have salt, sugar and preservatives added to them. If you cannot find canned beans that only contain beans, salt and water then go for dry beans and soak them overnight.

I like to eat my chili with white cheddar cheese and the original Tobasco sauce.

2. Beach picnic

I mentioned that my best friend from home, Kara, is a vegetarian. We always used to make pizzas and bake together, but now that I follow the SCD our eating paths run parallel rather than intersect. Picnics can be especially hard to make when sandwiches and potato chips are not allowed.

Photo by Shayna Tanen

Luckily, I was able to find something to make that satisfies us both at the beach: hard boiled eggs, strawberries, bananas and veggie chips. I can’t eat the veggie chips but that doesn’t mean Kara can’t! Pack it all up in a cooler, and you’ve got the perfect beach food. 

Here’s a tip for making perfect hard boiled eggs: start the eggs out in room-temperature water and bring the eggs to a boil. Once they begin to boil, take the pot away from the heat and keep it covered for 11-13 minutes. This prevents the eggs from getting too dry and getting that hideous gray ring around them.  For a more complete guide to making boiled eggs any way you like, check out this Bon Appetit article: http://www.bonappetit.com/test-kitchen/how-to/article/how-to-boil-an-egg

3. Larabars

Over spring break I was in the car a lot. Whether it was driving to and from Gainesville or taking a day trip downtown, I always kept a Larabar at hand for snacking.

Larabars are fruit, nut and date bars. The dates keep the bar intact and the fruit and nut adds yumminess, all without added sugar, dairy or grains. These bars are about the only pre-packaged, non-homemade food a person on the SCD can eat, and they are a life saver.

You can find Larabars at Publix in the energy bar section. I must warn you, they are not cheap, but they are definitely worth the money. My favorite flavors are coconut cream pie, banana bread and peanut butter and jelly.

Photo by Shayna Tanen

These tools and tips for finding a middle-ground with friends and family on the SCD made my spring break a relaxing time. I didn’t have to stress too much about what everyone could eat together, which gave me more time to enjoy a whole week without school — and what an enjoyable week it was.

Long live spring break!