Goodbye, winter

Sick of dry, wrinkly

clementines. Need strawberry-

rhubarb compote now.

Easy peasy

I love easy recipes, especially ones without a lot of ingredients.  It works well for my hoarding mentality when it comes to food.  I found these flour-free peanut butter cookies over at glutenfreegirl.  The list of ingredients alone sold me on it.  I added some chocolate chips to her recipe.  Fantastic, and so fast to put together.

Chocolate chip peanut butter cookies

You will need:

1 cup creamy peanut butter

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 egg

1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  

Cream the peanut butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl (it tends to fly around a bit).  Beat in the baking powder.  Add the egg.  Mix until well combined.  Stir in the chocolate chips with a spoon.

Roll the dough into small balls, about 1 inch round.  Roll onto a plate with some extra white sugar.  Put on your baking sheet and press the cookies down a little bit with the back of a fork.  

Bake 10-12 minutes in the oven.  They will still be a little bit soft when done.  Let cookies cool on the baking sheet five minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.    

Makes about 30 cookies.

Fresh basil!

The fresh-basil kitchen got some brand new, beautiful, sweet smelling fresh basil!  

It's coming

I went to the little farmers market near my office today at lunch, mostly expecting to see the same old apples, pears, and potatoes that have been there all winter long. But just as I turned around the corner, I saw it.

GREEN!!!

There was fresh baby lettuce, big bunches of chives, little heads of cabbage and tiny spring onions. I nearly jumped for joy. I brought home some fingerling potatoes and carrots, too. Sping is coming! It's really coming.

In the meantime

When I was first trying to do an elimation diet, I had a hard time wrapping my mind around how to plan meals. There was so much that couldn't be eaten, and it seemed like every magazine or blog post I read was featured a fantastic looking recipe filled with off-limits ingredients. Now, a few months in, I've gotten pretty used to cooking and planning around a diet that's diary, egg, and gluten-free, as well as some other one-off ingredients that seem to upset me like tomatoes, watermelon, and avocado (go figure).

I haven't been sharing recipes as much lately because I still feel like I make a lot of edible things that aren't quite worthy to post. Creating palatable polenta is hardly noteworthy, right? But I'm getting much better, and I'm sure I'll posting with more details in the near future.

But in the meantime, I thought it could be fun (to someone? maybe?) to see what a week long list of meals looks like when eating a restricted diet like this one. Of course, this is tailored totally to me, and may include any number of things that you are allergic to.

Sunday:
Pork tenderloin braised in some left-over prosecco with onion, garlic, some herbs, and slices of orange. Served with homefries, green beans, and salad.

Monday:
Polenta with meatballs and a yummy mushroom sauce. Peter made me meatballs with just a teeny little bit of breadcrumbs and egg, and skipped dusting them in flower. So I guess they more closely resembled hamburgers, but round. Still delicious.

Tuesday:
Curried carrots, fennel, and chicken served over rice.

Wednesday:
Chicken tacos on corn torillas with refried beans, shredded lettuce, salsa, and grilled veggies that were marinaded with cumin, chili powder and paprika.

Thursday:
Pork chops served with a dijon mustard/red wine reduction, mashed potatoes and salad.

Most weeks I also make a big batch of soup early on the week to have around for lunches. Then I alternate between taking salads or soups to work. This week I made one with kale, cranberry beans, and potatoes.

See how fun that was?