Pizza Pasta

Do you love pizza?  I used to love pizza.  As I've gotten further away from proccessed foods and continually add more and more whole foods into my diet, I've found that my cravings for junk food have slowly been diminishing.  I realized the other night when I came across a recipe for pizza pasta, that I couldn't remember the last time I ate pizza.  And then I was pleasantly surprised to notice that I didn't even have a craving for it. 

But pizza pasta was intriguing.  Of course the recipe called for all kinds of pre-made junk, so I thought to myself.  I could easily create my own version of pizza pasta.  And that is exactly what I did, and let me tell you it turned out to be really good!  So good in fact, I just had to share it with all of you.

Kristi's Pizza Pasta

• 1 package spaghetti noodles (I use brown rice since it is gluten-free)
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 28oz diced tomatoes, drained
• 1 can large black olives, sliced
• 1 large green bell pepper, diced
• 8 cremini or white mushrooms, sliced
• 1 small yellow or white onion, diced
• 24 slices organic pepperoni, quartered
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tbsp dried oregano
• salt and pepper to taste
• small bunch of basil leaves, torn
• 2 oz fresh mozzarella, cut into small chunks
• Parmesan for grating

1. Cook pasta according to package directions.  Drain well and return to pan, adding a swish of olive oil if desired.
2. In a medium pan over medium heat, sautee onion and mushroom until onion is translucent.  Add tomatoes, salt, pepper, oregano and garlic and cook tomatoes down until saucy about 10 minutes.
3. Add bell pepper and cook for about 3-5 minutes to keep peppers crunchy.  Don't overcook or peppers will be soft.
4. Add pepperoni and olives, cook for a few minutes to heat them up.  They don't need to be "cooked".
5. Add fresh basil and stir.  Once again cook for just a minute or two as basil doesn't need to be cooked, just warmed up.
6. Serve pizza topping over pasta, sprinkle with mozzarella chunks and grate with parmesan cheese.

Pizza Pasta
(C) Kristi Hyllen 2011

So what other toppings do you like on your pizza?

Salad Greens

During the cold months of winter the thought of salad makes my face cringe.  Its freezing cold and the last thing my body wants is anything that will only add to my coldness.  Instead I crave soups and stews, hot teas and lots of meat!  Foods that warm my Vatta body.

Its just the beginning of March, but here in the foothills of California, spring is slowly waking up and showing her face.  Daffodils are proudly displaying their yellow beauty while the wild chickweed is creeping throughout the garden.

Which means my body is warming up and beginning to crave those delicious spring greens that I love to take into my kitchen and turn into tasty salads.  Of course it isn't quite that warm yet, so I eat my spring salads next to the wood stove!

As I was working on my upcoming cooking class on salads, I was inspired to blog about the lovely offerings of spring.  Here are just a few of my favorite salad greens.

Arugula ~
Bitter and peppery, throw into any salad for some zing.  I especially love arugula mixed with cooked quinoa, dried fruit and nuts.

Bibb, Boston, Butterhead ~
Soft and tender, goes great in any salad and especially in sandwiches.  Butterhead is one of my favorites even though it is expensive.

Chickweed ~
A wild weed that grows crazy in my garden.  Only eat chickweed you know hasn't been sprayed or is not alongside roadways where it sucks up car fumes.  Add a handful to any salad, just be sure to get rid of the stems.

Curly Endive, Chicory, Frisee ~
Crisp and bitter, use a little to add variety to your salad.  I personally find the shape hard to get in my mouth, so I give it a good chop!

Dandelion ~
Use small tender leaves for salad, larger leaves can be cooked.  And yes you can eat them out of your backyard as long as you haven't sprayed chemicals!

Endive ~
Bitter and mild.  Use it like a scoop for tuna, chicken, and crab salads.

Escarole ~
Small leaves can be used in salad, otherwise I chop it up and throw it in soup.

Mesclun ~
A mixture of tender young greens usually arugula, frisee, radicchio, chard and herbs that can be used as a salad base.

Miner's Lettuce ~
Another wild weed that grows crazy in the spring.  Again make sure your harvesting weeds you know haven't been sprayed.

Radicchio ~
Bitter and peppery, a little goes a long way and makes a salad visually appealing.

Romaine ~
Crunchy and a good base for most salads, used in the classic Caesar salad.


And that is just a short list of greens one can use to make salad.  I encourage you to go to your favorite produce section and see what else they have in stock.  Or if you are lucky enough to have a farmers market happening in your neck of the woods, go talk to your farmer about any salad greens they may be growing! 

So I'm off to make some dinner and on the side I think I'll toss together a classic Caesar!


What are your favorite salad greens?

********************************************

Want to learn to make some yummy salads with these delectable greens?

Salads & Dressings Cooking Class:
Wednesday March 16th
6:00 to 8:00
Private kitchen in Ione, CA  (address supplied when payment is made)

The Salads:

• Quinoa Apple Cranberry
• Caesar
• Strawberry Spinach
• Chicken
• Wild Weeds

The Dressings:

• Rosemary Balsamic Garlic
• Caesar
• Strawberry Poppy Seed Yogurt
• Roasted Red Pepper
• Green Goddess

Class is $25
RSVP by Monday March 14th to Kristi at 209-712-2424 or email me at kristi@kitchenwitchcoaching.com

Chickweed Pesto

I just returned from a fantastic four day womens retreat along the gorgeous coast of Mendocino.  I have yet to unpack my suitcase, though my pictures have been downloaded to facebook and I've spent most of the morning in the kitchen.  Priorities! 

And naturally being away from home for some time means a bare bones supply of food in the fridge.  But not to worry, I have learned that I do my best creative cooking when I have little to choose from.  It is when the magick is at its best.

So as I contemplated what to create for dinner, I could feel those wonderful stirrings of ideas coming forth.  Marinated grilled steaks topped with chickweed pesto!  With scissors in hand, I headed out to the front garden to gather that most abundant chickweed to make the pesto.

Ingredients for chickweed pesto

Chickweed Pesto

• 2 to 3 cups chickweed
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1/2 cup walnuts
• 3/4 cup grated parmesan
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1/2 cup olive oil

1. Wash chickweed in a bowl of cold water, letting any sand or dirt settle to the botto.  Lift greens out of water into a colander.  Pat dry with a towel or dry in a salad spinner.
2. Place peeled garlic in the bowl of a food processor.  Process to chop.  Add the chickweed and process to chop.
3. Add the nuts, grated cheese, salt, pepper, and olive oil.  Process until gound into a fairly smooth paste.  If the mixture is too dry, add a little more olive oil.

Chickweed Pesto

But of course I still needed to figure out what to eat for lunch.  Rummaging around in the fridge and the pantry, I pulled out a variety of items and mixed them up into a salad.  Romaine lettuce, leftover quinoa, avocado, walnuts, dried cranberries, pastrami, feta cheese and to my delight I topped it off with some chickweed pesto!  I had never thought of using pesto as a salad dressing before!

"Leftovers in the Fridge" salad with some chickweed pesto as dressing

So I'm anticipating a delicious dinner tonight.  I can just imagine the chickweed pesto melting over my tender steaks.  mmmmmmm

How else can you use chickweed pesto?  On top of grilled chicken and seafood, tossed with rice or pasta, dolloped in a soup, drizzled over baked root vegetables, as a dip for crudites and crackers.  The possiblities are endless!


How will you use chickweed pesto?

Finding Sugar

Whenever I buy something at the store, I always look at the price per unit cost.  It saves money, makes my dollar go further, and I've found that store brands are really no different than name brands.  So last week on my usual shopping trip, I had to buy some clams for a clam chowder I was planning on cooking.

As usual, I compared the unit cost on all three brands of clams and chose the cheaper of the three.  I mean how different could they be, they're clams!  But to my utter horror and amazement they were not!

Sunday night I set about to make my clam chowder.  Half an onion, a lot of garlic, some bacon and six potatoes later I was ready to add the clams.  For the fun of it, I decided to read the ingredients expecting to see: clams.  But what I saw was that insidious word: SUGAR!  WHAT?!  Sugar!  Why on Goddesses' Green Earth do a can of clams need sugar!

What in the world does the sugar do for the clams?!  Does it somehow make us addicted to THAT brand of clams?  What were the CEO's and CFO's of this company thinking when they got the not so bright idea to add sugar!  Do I seriously need my clams to be sweetened? 

So after ranting and raving for a bit, I went ahead and made my clam chowder, apologized to my intestines and vowed to always read labels!

In my curiosity, I decided to scavenge through my cupboards and fridge to see where else sugar was lurking.  Some items were no surprise, but some made me go GRRRRRRR!

Here is my list:

Trader Joe's Champagne Vinaigrette
Trader Joe's Dijon Mustard
Trader Joe's Organic Ketchup
Trader Joe's Ranch Dressing
Trader Joe's Tortilla Chips
Trader Joe's Blackberry Preserves
Trader Joe's Thai Red Curry Sauce
Trader Joe's Honey Wheat Hamburger Buns
Trader Joe's Organic Bacon
Nature's Path Organic Flax Plus Cereal
Nature's Path Organic Instant Oatmeal
Kettle BBQ Chips
Dynasty Hoisin Sauce
Stonewall Kitchen BBQ Sauce
Pamela's Wheat and Gluten Free Pancake and Baking Mix
Pamela's Wheat and Gluten Free Bread and Flour Mix

So what's a girl to do when even items that are supposed to be "health" foods contain sugar?  Time for another overhaul!  I guess I'll be looking for new brands or making my own ketchup and baking mixes!


I challenge you.  What items do you have in your pantry and fridge that contain sugar?

Sugar Cane Sticks

Thursday is my grocery shopping day.  Since Mike has the day off, together we meander down to Stockton and make our way to Trader Joe's, Artesian Natural Foods and Raley's, stocking up the ice chests, and loading up the trunk to feed our hungry teenage daughters.

The produce section at the Stockton Raley's is always a delight for me and I take great pride in knowing the names of all the various fruits and vegetables.  Mike enjoys asking me, "What's this?"  And I enjoy answering!


What's this?  Turnips
What's this?  Bitter melon. 
What's this?  Lemongrass. 
What's this?  Rutabaga. 
What's this?  Sugar cane.  Sugar Cane??!!

Sugar Cane Sticks from Raley's

Yep there it was, little packages of sugar cane tucked away on a shelf not far from the peppers.  I HAD to buy them, I mean seriously!  What a novelty!  But why buy sugar when I've made it publicly known that I am now living in a sugar-free zone?

Well, it goes back to a book I read several years ago.  Sweetness and Power:  The Place of Sugar in Modern History by Sidney W. Mintz.  Such a fascinating book which discusses the origins of sugar and how it changed the history of captialism, altered work patterns, eating habits and influenced our modern diet.

The one thing I clearly remember is the discussion of how slaves on the sugar plantations would chew sticks of unprocessed sugar cane yet never developed the diseases or dental caries that Americans and Europeans so easily developed and still do to this day. 

Why?  Well according to Mintz, sticks of unprocessed sugar cane would be likened to a whole food.  Just like processing an apple into apple juice and only drinking the juice but never eating the apple can lead to weight gain and contribute to poor health, so to processing a sugar cane and only eating the sugar, but not the cane, also leads to poor health.

Unprocessed Sugar Cane Sticks

So in my curiosity, I just had to buy the sticks!  And I know your curious, what do they taste like?  Well they are a little juicy, a little sweet and have a slight maple flavor.  I only chewed a quarter of a stick and have been watching for any reaction.  So far so good.

Now the last thing I want to do is get back into a sweet binge, but they were too synchronistic to pass up and the scientist in me loves a good experiment!

Have you tried sugar cane sticks?  What do you think of putting sugar cane sticks into the category of a whole food?  Do you think unprocessed cane could actually not be detrimental to one's health?

Sugar Challenge

I was a sugar addict.  It started innocently enough as a small child.  A chocolate donut from the local bakery on Saturday morning, a swig of cherry Kool-Aid on a hot summer afternoon, a bowl of colorful Trix cereal washed down with cold milk before school.

Sugar was just as common as salt and pepper.  It sweetened up those apple pies my mom baked in the fall.  It decorated the tops of snickerdoodle cookies.  It had its own rightful place in the sugar bowl, where adding an extra spoonful of sugar certainly did help the medicine go down!

Little did I know sugar was like a slow drip of arsenic, poisoning my body and creating an addiction that could rival anyone at the Betty Ford Center.  (Want to know about the damage sugar does to your body?  Read my notes on Facebook.)

I have vivid memories of my first job at Safeway.  I was completely unaware that I had a sugar problem, though each day on my break a jelly donut and a 3 Musketeers Bar found its way into my stomach.

More vivid memories of being a 6th grade school teacher.  Still unaware of my sugar addiction, I spent each night lying in bed reading a book while scarfing down half a bag of cookies and sipping nighty night tea wondering why I had insomnia.

And still more memories of homeschooling my children.  Heaping spoonful after spoonful of sugar into cups of coffee, then frantically drinking the elixir down as a heroin addict frantically finds a fix.

Making the decision to eliminate sugar from my diet was one of the most difficult challenges I've ever faced in my life.  Sugar, once it knows you are ready to sever ties, goes into overdrive and creates uncontrollable cravings that even Super Woman couldn't conquer.  I battled with sugar for years!  At times having conquered the invader and at other times caving in like Whole Foods acquiescing to Monsanto.

It wasn't until I started school at Institute for Integrative Nutrition that I finally got a handle on the sugar.  Through patience, determination, better food choices, deconstructing the cravings and lots of support from my fellow students, I found the sugar cravings slowly diminishing while my mood and energy improved and my belly didn't hurt anymore!

But now even with my arsenal of natural and alternative sweeteners, I am dismayed and disgruntled by the sugar content found in the most basic of foods.  Ketchup, mayonnaise, salad dressings, BBQ sauce.  You name it, it probably has sugar in it.  Even the organic products at the health food store are loaded with sugar!  Though I may not want sugar in my life, the food industry seems to think it should be!

So my Sugar Challenge has begun.  I am on a mission to continue eliminating sugar from my life and my pantry.  By finding products made without sugar or just learning to make them on my own, my goal is to be truly sugar free. 

Will you to join me?


How has sugar affected your life?

Homemade Granola

Every once in a while I'll get a craving for some granola.  Crunchy, a little sweet and full of my favorite nuts and dried fruits.  But unfortunately most granolas in the store are full of sugar.  Drat that sugar!  So I decided to just make my own.  I mean how hard could it be?  Here's the recipe:

Homemade Granola

• 2 cups old fashioned rolled oats, organic please!
• 1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
• 1/2 cup sliced almonds, go ahead throw in some other favorite nuts too, like chopped pecans
• 2 tbsp coconut oil
• 2 tbsp honey
• 1 cup dried cranberries or your favorite dried fruit or even a combo!

1. Preheat oven to 350*  On a large rimmed baking sheet, toss oats, coconut and almonds.
2. In a small saucepan, melt coconut oil.  Remove from heat and stir in honey.
3. Pour over oat mixture and toss.
4. Bake, stirring occasionally, until lightly toasted, 20-30 minutes
5. Place mixture in a large storage bowl and stir in cranberries.  Make sure to let the granola cool completely before storing. 

Fresh from the oven granola

My favorite way to eat this granola is just like a bowl of cereal with some fresh raw milk.  It also tastes divine sprinkled in yogurt or cottage cheese.  For a snack, cut an apple or banana in half and spread with peanut butter, then add granola on top for a fun treat.  Granola can also go with ice cream or frozen yogurt and is really good stirred into a fruit salad.

Storing the granola

It looks so pretty, I couldn't stop taking pics!

How do you eat granola?