Adventures of a healthy-ish pseudo-foodie

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...

  In a world without a toddler, I would have taken the extra second to properly slice/sprinkle that green onion. This recipe started with extra brussels sprouts (left over from  the best Caesar salad ) and my perpetual craving for Korean food. I searched "brussels sprouts banchan" for ideas, and  this recipe from Minimalist Baker  looked delicious. I ended up barely following the recipe (improvised my sauce, roasted instead of stir-frying), but I appreciate the inspiration. In a world without a toddler, I would have moved these to better light. I roasted tofu at the same time, and just plopped the sauce (and sesame seeds) over everything at the end. Easy. Also, look at my little banchan plate! I painted it myself at the paint-your-own-pottery place. I also grew those radishes on the left. The Recipe: 1 lb brussels sprouts, quartered and stems removed 1 tsp neutral oil 1 tsp kosher salt 1/4 c gochujang paste 1 tb sesame oil 1 tb soy sauce 1 tsp rice vinegar 3 tb maple...

  Imagine ribbons of fresh basil intersecting the ribbons of crispy kale. With the garden bursting with squash and kale, I set out to find a lightened-up version of a white pizza sauce. The one that sounded best was  this recipe from Vegan in the Freezer . Vegans, follow that link for the original vegan version. I didn't have cashews, so I substituted sour cream for that part. I also eliminated the flour to make it safe to taste raw, and reduced the amount of almond milk to avoid making it too runny after the previous two changes. It's SO good. Full of flavor and brings out the freshness of the vegetable toppings. The recipe yielded enough for two pizzas, so I was planning to freeze half, but we are craving more so I'm just leaving it in the fridge for a few days before making another pizza. The Recipe (adapted from Vegan in the Freezer): (yields enough for 2 pizzas) 3/4 c sour cream 3/4 c almond milk 1 tb nutritional yeast  1 tb lemon juice 1 tsp garlic powder 1/4 tsp on...

  Smells like almonds. I made a cherry bread with last year's cherries, and it was delicious, but had no nutritional value. This year, I wanted to find some middle ground. I worked from  this recipe . I substituted the eggs for flax eggs (1 tb flax meal and 3 tb water, mixed together a few minutes before using) only because I was out of eggs, but I might keep this change. I used almond milk with a splash of lemon juice instead of the buttermilk. And I added chocolate, which of course made it a little less healthy, but much more satisfying. I used butter instead of oil because it tastes better. And I adjusted the baking time and temperature to make bread instead of muffins, because who has time to clean a muffin tin these days? It's a good sweetness for us, since we eat it as a treat. But if one wanted to make it even healthier, the sugar could be reduced a little bit and it would still be good. This recipe is a keeper. Especially when this is just a fraction of the cherries on...

Chard, not seaweed. But that would be good too. I've tried a few different recipes for hot and sour soup, and they've always just left me wishing that I had gotten Chinese takeout instead. But this one! This one is good! And that's even without the white pepper, which sources say is the most important ingredient. (I'll buy some before next time.) I followed  this recipe from Amy in the Kitchen , because she has my name, and also because the recipe looked straightforward and had no pork in it. The only changes I made were to use vegetable broth instead of beef broth, dried shiitakes instead of regular mushrooms, and I scaled down all of the amounts. I also added chard this time, because it is exploding in the garden and I'm adding it to every meal. And as previously mentioned, I didn't have any white pepper, but I've kept it in the instructions below because I trust the internet that it will make it even better. The Recipe: 4 c vegetable broth 2 dried shiitak...

  Alongside Instant Pot refried black beans . I've tried making Mexican rice many times, and I've always failed. I think it's because the tomato/moisture ratio has to be just right, to avoid a mushy mess? Anyway, I'm so happy to finally have succeeded enough to save this recipe. I think there's room for improvement, but this was great next to some refried beans. It is noteworthy that I liked the cooked carrots in it. I don't usually like cooked carrots. But the way these were cooked, in the instant pot with all of the other flavors in there, made them perfectly seasoned and delicious. I followed  this recipe  from Tastes Better From Scratch. My changes were that I increased the amount of rice and water to make a bit more, I left out the peas and I used a packet of Trader Joe's chicken stock concentrate instead of tomato bouillon. I might look for tomato bouillon for next time, though! Also, it didn't specify what type of rice to use, but I used basmati. ...