Garlic, garlic, garlic

Remember that old Little Caesar's pizza commercial? where the little cartoon Roman guy said, "Pizza, pizza, pizza."? What do you think made that pizza taste so good? Garlic! And that's why this episode is devoted to garlic.

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Daniel Fasting Recipes: Pistachio Nut Milk & Breakfast Parfaits

Here's a no-brainer Daniel fasting recipe that will make your busy life easier.

Pistachio Nut Milk

Ingredients
1 cup of raw, unsalted organic pistachios, shelled
 3 cups of water
1-3 madjool dates

Directions
Toss it all in a blender, whip it up and then strain. Store in a mason jar sealed for up to one week. Once the seal is broken, please consume it within 2-3 days.

Add the left over nut mixture to your breakfast cereal

Or

Make a breakfast parfait.

Ingredients
gluten-free granola
fruit flavored soy yogurt
the pistachio nut mixture
fresh fruit

Directions
Layer each of the ingredients in one of those old fashioned
sundae dishes or a tall clear glass tumbler will work too.

Serve with an iced tea spoon and enjoy!

The Temptation of Dairy

I gotta be honest, a few short weeks ago, I wasn't willing to give up diary products, after all, I had just given up wheat and oats and barley just a few short months ago.  I wasn't willing to give up my dairy too.

Even though, I had watched Dr. Walter Veith's video Udderly Amazing so many times, I had lost count. I just wasn't ready to give up ice cream and butter and sour cream. No way, Hosea! But, here I am...it's Jan 20th, 2013 and Voila! I've cut the dairy out of my diet too.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm occasionally tempted. In fact, on a recent trip to Beijing, I stopped by a Cold Stone Creamery and indulged. I was disappointed to say the least. So now, when I'm temped, it's easy to just say, "No."

The real test is when I'm out of China and back home in the States. Will I be able to say "No" then?

Stay tuned.

Cauliflower Apple Soup

      

I like to make this on one of those cold winter evenings when I didn't feel particularly inspired to hang out at dinner with friends because I just feel like curing up with a good book and having a light, but satisfying bowl of comfort food.

Ingredients:

• 1 medium to largish sized cauliflower head
• 1/2 of a red or yellow onion
• 1 to 1 1/2 cup of unsweetened soy milk
• 1 tablespoon apple cider or distilled white vinegar
• 2 medium sweet apples,  peeled
• 1 green onion or scallion
• 1 teaspoon of garlic powder (optional)
• lightly salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Steam the cauliflower, apples and onion in a steamer basket, or boil in unsalted water until tender.
2. Place in a high-speed blender. 
3. Sprinkle in garlic powder. 
4. Add just enough soy milk in order to get a nice smooth constancy. (That will depend  on the size of your cauliflower head. You should probably eyeball it, instead of dumping in the full 1 to 1/2 cups of soy milk.) Caution - The ingredients are hot!
3. Blend in batches. Blend until until completely smooth.  If you have a blender wand, just blend it up right in the pot.
4. Add salt and pepper to taste, top with thinly sliced green onion. 

Try this ladled over millet.  That's yummy too.

Gluten Free, Fat Free, Egg Free, Cardamon Banana Bread

Technically, this isn't a Daniel Fasting recipe, but it fits in nicely with the Daniel Fasting Lifestyle.

I've been experimenting on variations of this recipe and by George, I think I've got it. I personally love millet flour. Now the thing is, when you are using millet flour, you have to be generous with the water or the end product comes out rather dry and crumbly.

Ingredients

1/2 cup soy flour
1 cup sugar
1 and a 1/2 cups of millet flour
1/2 cup potato starch
1 tablespoon of guar gum
2 tablespoons of psyllium hulls
1 teaspoon of cardamon
a pinch of nutmeg
a dash of cinnamon
3 tablespoon of aluminum free baking powder
1 to 1 1/2 cups of water
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1 mashed banana
1 cup of soy milk




Directions

Whisk in the dry ingredients until the color is uniform. Then add the wet ingredients. Throughly whisk together. Let stand for about 5 -10 minutes and then whisk in a bit more water until the batter has a nice consistency (not too thick and not too thin.) Pour the batter into a lightly greased cake tin. Bake at 350 degrees F for about 35-40 minutes. remove from oven when the fork comes out clean. Let rest for about 15 minutes and then enjoy.

1/2 cup of soy flour

1/2 cup of potato starch

1 cup of sugar

This is what the bag of millet flour looks like when you shop at Carrefour in China.

Whisk the dry ingredients together until they become one uniform color.

Mash up a banana.

Add 2 tablespoons of psyllium hulls

Add a pinch of nutmeg, a dash of cinnamon and a heaping teaspoon of cardamon.

...and a teaspoon of vanilla.

Add 250 milliliters of soy milk. In this case,  I only had this black soybean, black rice, black sesame drink on hand, but  a cup of regular 'ol soy milk will do just fine. 

The finished product is a moist, dense, fat free, gluten free, vegan cake with a delicate hint of cardamon. 

Fat Free Chili Fries

Here's my take on how to make this classic warm weather comfort food fat free, gluten free and Daniel fasting friendly.

Ingredients:
1 can of kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 small onion, diced
1 Tablespoon of oregano
1 Tablespoon of garlic flakes
2 Tablespoons of paprika
1/2 a jar of oil free tomato puree, from a glass jar or carton
1 1/2 cup of water
2 medium potatoes, cut into french fries
1 tomato, diced
1 slice of onion

Directions:
Bring the chili to a boil for a few minutes and then simmer until the onion is soft, about 20 minutes.
Peel and cut the potatoes up into wedges or fries. Place the potato wedges on a VERY lightly oiled nonstick pan and place in the oven. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes or until done.
Dice the onion and tomato. Ladle the chili over the baked fries and serve warm. Garnish the top with fresh tomato and onion just prior to serving.

Low Fat, Gluten Free, Vegan Meatless Meatloaf

This recipe is for a low fat, gluten free, vegan meatless meatloaf that is suitable for The Daniel Fasting Lifestyle. (I realize calling it a, "vegan meatless meatloaf" sounds a little redundant, but it gets the message across, right?)

I don't know about you, but I don't have fond memories of my mom's meatloaf (sorry mom.) My mom's family is German and they used to own, run and manage German restaurants. My aunt can do some serious homestyle German cooking, mom not so much. Truth be told, I never did care for all that meat based food, even as a child. 

Mom's meatloaf pretty much consisted of hamburger meat, eggs and breadcrumbs, topped with the oblatory ketchup "glaze." No one else in the family seemed to have a problem with consuming all that meat. (We ate meat at every meal, except for breakfast. Breakfast pretty much consisted of cake. Yeah, cake. I used to scratch my head and wonder about that one, but after talking to some other grown up German-American kids, I soon realized that situation was pretty much the norm.)

Back to the recipe. I pilfered this recipe from Back to Her Roots and modified it to make it gluten free and Daniel fasting friendly.

Ingredients:

The tangy glaze:

• 1/2 cup unsweetened, oil free tomato sauce
• 2 tablespoons of apricot preserves
• 1 teaspoon paprica
• 2 tablespoons of mustard (I prefer the grainy type.)
• 2 - 3 tablespoons of water

The meatloaf:

• 1 cup cooked small grain brown rice or cooked millet
• 1/2 a large green or red pepper, diced
• 1 medium carrot, finely shredded
• 2 green onion stalks, finely chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 can of white beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can of pinto beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 tablespoons of paprika
• fresh ground cracked black pepper to taste - Adding salt at this point would be overkill, as the canned beans would have been bathing in it for quite some time.)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a bowl, whisk the tangy glaze ingredients together and set aside.
3. Dice the garlic and fresh peppers up. Shred the carrot and cut the green onion up into thin little slices. Set aside.
4. Next, add the beans. Blend until smooth, but not too smooth. You still want those beans to retain some texture. (You may want to do this part in batches unless you have a Vitamix or food processor.) Finally mix the bean mixture, chopped veggies and grains together.
5. Pour into a lightly greased loaf pan. 
6. Pour glaze on top.
7. Bake for 30 - 35 minutes.

BTW ~ You can also shape the "meatloaf" mixture into little meatball shapes. Bake them, just like the meatloaf, but keep your eye on them. You don't want to over cook them. Or you can make little mini-meatloafs by baking the "meatloaf" mixture in a muffin  pan.