Adventures of a healthy-ish pseudo-foodie

BEFORE: AFTER: Still to come: a beautiful new induction range and some wood shelving on the left side, above the backsplash. And maybe the shelving unit on the wall facing the cabinets should be green, but we're going to live with a while before making that decision.

So good with rice. I came across  this recipe  for what promised to be addictive, Izakaya-style salted cabbage, and was excited to try it. I didn't have anything resembling chicken bouillon powder, so I left that out altogether, and even so, it was absolutely delicious and definitely addictive. I'll be trying it again with bouillon powder. The Recipe: 1/4 of a medium-sized cabbage, cut into bite-sized pieces 1 tb sesame oil 1/2 tb toasted sesame seeds 1/4 tsp salt 1/8 tsp pepper 1 garlic clove, grated Optional for the future - 1/8 tsp bouillon powder Place all ingredients in a bowl and massage the seasonings into the cabbage to distribute evenly. The Verdict: Overall grade: A Overall reason: The easiest possible delicious healthy side dish! Time to prepare: 5 minutes Husband quote: I was too focused on the cabbage to pay attention, but I think he liked it too.  

  This picture brought to you by dropping the entire loaf on its way out of the oven, thereby losing the top layer. Who is in charge of the photography around here??? Another low-FODMAP recipe for the toddler, and this one packs a good amount of hidden carrots inside! I worked from  this recipe from Flavor the Moments . I swapped the coconut oil for vegetable oil (easier), coconut sugar for brown sugar (I had no coconut sugar), skipped the ginger and nutmeg and coconut and walnut (toddler), and upped the carrot content (nutrition). I also added a little bit of flour (Bob's Red Mill 1-1 gluten free flour) to make sure it would bake ok, since I had added extra carrots and I was also turning a muffin recipe into a bread. It was DELICIOUS, even with all of my changes. This will be a staple around here. The Recipe: 1/3 c vegetable oil 3/4 c brown sugar (could probably get away with less) 2 eggs 3/4 c almond milk 1 tsp vanilla extract 2 c oat flour 1/3 c flour (gluten free if necess...

It's more photogenic with real oat flour. This one is made from baby oatmeal powder for the extra iron. I've tried a lot of oat-flour baking concoctions for the toddler. He is generally so excited to have anything resembling bread that he eats them no matter what, but lots of them haven't held together and/or haven't tasted great. This one has been reliable, even when I do things like swap the oat flour for baby oatmeal powder, and it's simple to make. And it tastes good! I never cared before about "healthier" recipes that bragged that they used only maple syrup as sweetener, with no white sugar. It felt all the same to me. But toddler belly definitely seems happier digesting maple syrup, so here we are. It's from  Detoxinista , and I didn't make any changes to the recipe except that I usually use butter instead of coconut oil.  The Recipe: 1.5 c oat flour 3/4 c pumpkin puree 1 c maple syrup 4 tsp pumpkin pie spice 3 eggs 1/4 c melted butter or coc...

Since the rest of the family doesn't share my desire to eat Korean stew every day, I've been wanting to try a Japanese-type stew as a compromise. I got excited when I read  this Oden recipe  from Just One Cookbook, because the broth and method seemed to match what I was looking for. I've made it twice so far: once with the traditional fish cakes and hard boiled eggs, and once just with tofu and vegetables. I kept the original recipe's instructions for the broth, and I also kept their additions of daikon radish (because I still have about 15 in the ground from this fall's garden), kombu, and green onion. To that, I added some shredded cabbage, sliced zucchini, and soft tofu in the one without fish cakes, all of which makes it feel a bit more like the Korean stews that I crave. The full array of fish cakes was a bit too much for me, but I think it would be perfect to have just one small package of fish cakes together with tofu and vegetables. The eggs were really good...

The batch after this one was less flat. Both tasted good. For the low-FODMAP toddler's impending birthday, we needed some cookies that were safe for him to eat. He reacts badly even to gluten-free flour mixes, so I looked for a recipe with just oat flour. I picked  this one from Pinch and Swirl , and it's good! I'm keeping it for the future. The original recipe said to refrigerate the dough before baking for at least an hour, and up to 3 days. I did just an hour for the first batch (pictured above). The second batch was in the fridge for more like 90 minutes, and those cookies didn't flatten out nearly as much, so I've changed my refrigerating instructions to "at least 90 minutes." My only other change is that I actually decreased the amount of chocolate chips a bit. It was still plenty! These cookies have a lot of butter and sugar, but for low-FODMAP purposes, I won't muck with substituting applesauce. We'll stick with the real stuff. The Recipe: ...

Low-FODMAP baby is thrilled to have "pizza" I can't figure out how to get a good photo of this food. It looks better in person. I love Beryl Shereshewsky's "Around the World" YouTube food videos. When she did  this one about rice paper , I was excited to see what was there besides spring rolls. The very first recipe was for this Vietnamese pizza, and she was so excited about it that I had to try it. Now I'm excited about it too! Hers was apparently the traditional version, with Laughing Cow cheese and pork floss. I didn't have pork floss, nor was I especially interested in getting any pork floss. But I do love some Laughing Cow cheese! I also googled for other ideas and found one recipe with tuna and kewpie mayo, another with just egg and cheese, and lots with various meats.  I mixed and matched and I have made a few varieties now. They have all been good. My personal favorite had leftover latkes crumbled up, a bit of cheddar, some fried shallots, an...