Let's try new foods!

[calzephyr]

I think new foods are the hardest thing to try, even old foods if the experience was bad. It seems like taste and smell make the strongest memories and if a food is prepared poorly, the mind builds up quite a resistance to it!


The first two are dairy replacements. How do you make vegetarian lasagna more vegetarian? With soy cheese of course! fairlyvanilla suggested it, as well as nutritional yeast. I haven't given that a shot, although I really loved the soy cheese. It shredded just like real cheese and I loved the texture, but the taste of real mozza wasn't quite there. Soy cheese is not husband approved though! We're not big cheese eaters anyway - we don't use enough of it to justify buying a big brick.

Next there's something called Hempure by Living Harvest. Timban brought it over tonight and I was surprised to hear that Wolf liked it so much. And so did I! I have tried over milk replacements, and I just don't like soy milk, even Silk. Hempure had a nice nutty flavour to it.

My MIL blessed us with a big bag of farm fresh chard, which was overwhelming. Chard isn't something that can be gifted along like zucchinis. I blanched some in the steamer to freezer after finding instructions online. Tonight I steamed them for about 20 minutes and tossed them with margarine and salt and it was better than I expected. We're going to be having lots of chard this week :-)

Lastly, there's the humble avocado, which taeha and fairlyvanilla enthusiastically suggested I try even though it was on the list of bad foods the doctor gave me. I find it kind of bland, but when paired with a fruit like peaches or apples, it's really tasty. One of my co-workers likes to have it on toast, with salt and pepper. Avocadoes are packed with lots of good things, despite being high in monosaturated fats. Apparently they may even lower LDL cholesterol according to the American Heart Association.

Comments

[taeha.livejournal.com]

Yay avacados! One of my favourite things to make with avacados is guacamole -- it's good to dip nachos in, and great on a burger or sandwich. Let me know if you'd like my stellar recipe. :)

[calzephyr77.livejournal.com]

Oooh, please send me your recipe, I collect them like my horses collect dust ;-) I just started getting around to ripping out the recipe sections of Chatelaine so I don't have to keep the whole magazine.

[taeha.livejournal.com]

Here's my guacamole recipe -- it usually works to do one avacado per person being served, so I generally double or triple this recipe. It's kind of hard to mess up guacamole, the key is to adjust the salt, lemon, raw garlic, and hot sauce to suit how much spiciness or saltiness you like it to have, and to make sure it's mashed enough. You could absolutely do this in a food processor, too.

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1 very ripe/soft avocado
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice (can add lime juice to taste, if you have it!)
1 tablespoon salsa
Dash of hot sauce
1/3-1/2 tsp each - Salt and pepper - (to taste)
1 pressed, mashed, or very finely chopped clove of raw garlic

Wash, peel, and take the core out of one very ripe (soft) avocado. Pour
lemon juice on pieces, and mash with a fork. Press garlic and stir in. Add remaining ingredients and stir/mash until it's a good consistency for dipping. If there are any large, fibrous strings, remove before serving. Can be refrigerated for a couple of days, but tastes best within 1-6 hours of making. The citrus juice prevents it from browning.
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[mrs-dragon.livejournal.com]

I LOVE avocado. Sadly, all the good ones are back in CA and none ever make it out here. *pouts*

[calzephyr77.livejournal.com]

Aw! Your parents should FedEx ya a box of them for Christmas :-)