Rhubarb Pie

I have quite a few rhubarb recipes but I hardly ever make anything with it. I tried this rhubarb pie recipe for the first time and it was quite easy. I'm going to keep changing it until I come up with the taste I (we) like. I think it would taste good with apples too.

Chipless: 1 Year, 38 days

Candyless: 38 days

Chocolatefree Mondays: 21

Chocolatefree Fridays: 13

Covered nut free: 15 days

Oatmeal Brownies

I recently heard that someone I know was diagnosed with celiac disease. I haven't heard from her since she told me so I don't know how strict her diet will be. I've heard that some people with celiac disease can eat oats so I was trying to find something I could make if she can eat them. I came across a recipe for Oat Flour Brownies. I had to change some ingredients because I didn't have them and I don't know if I can get them here.

Oatmeal Brownies

3 dl oatmeal (ground in food processor until flour-like)

1 tsp baking powder

dash salt

1 dl cocoa powder

2 dl sugar

1 tsp vanilla sugar

1 dl oil

2 eggs

Grind oatmeal in food processor. Pour into a bowl and add baking powder, salt, sifted cocoa powder, sugar and vanilla sugar and then mix together. Beat in oil and eggs until just blended. Pour into a greased pan. Bake at 175 C for 30 to 40 minutes.

This is how the oatmeal looked before and after I ground it in the food processor.

Chipless: 1 Year, 18 days

Candyless: 18 days

Chocolatefree Mondays: 18

Chocolatefree Fridays: 10

Dahl and Macaroni Salad

Last week's vegetarian dish was a dahl. I got the main recipe from Thimble's Blog but because we don't eat onions or garlic nor did I have the spices, I changed it.

Coconut Dahl

2.5 dl orange lentils

5 dl water

½ curry

dash pepper

½ tsp ginger powder

1.25 dl coconut

2.5 tbsp yogurt

Cook lentils according to package instructions. Add curry, pepper, ginger, coconut and yogurt and heat through. Serve over rice.

I bought something today that I've never bought before. Fresh ginger. I wasn't even sure how it tasted so I was a bit weary about using much of it. I googled fresh ginger and found out it can be frozen, so I cut it up into pieces and froze the rest. I also read that it is possible to put it through a garlic press which sort of worked.

Today's vegetarian meal was what we call a macaroni salad. I use either a tin of kidney beans or chickpeas. I tried a new dressing on top. I usually just mix some oil, honey, orange juice, dried dill, paprika and curry together.

Apple Salad Dressing

1 apple, cored, seeded and chopped small

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp sesame seeds

¼ tsp dried dill

dash chili powder

½ tsp curry powder

small piece of fresh ginger, grated

¾ dl olive oil

Puree until smooth

Macaroni Salad

1 tin of kidney beans or chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1-2 carrots, diced small

cucumber, diced

red pepper, chopped

(celery, chopped)

1-2 tomatoes, chopped

Mix well with dressing.

Chipless: 1 year 9 days

Candyless days: 9

Chocolatefree Mondays: 17

Chocolatefree Fridays: 8

I Did It!

I can't believe I actually did it and how fast this past year has gone. I wonder what I'd look like if I had been able to cut out all of the extras I've eaten over the year too. Oh well on to the next stage which is cutting out candy. It won't be too hard because I don't each much candy and I'm not including chocolate or marshmallows.

Chipless: 1 Year

Candyless:

Chocolatefree Mondays: 16

Chocolatefree Fridays: 7

Broccoli and Chickpea Pasta

Well I had my first all vegetarian day. For breakfast I had oatmeal porridge and fatfree milk. Lunch was peanut butter and homemade strawberry jam on bread. I had heard about Chef Marc Meyer's Lemony Broccoli and Chickpea Rigatoni recipe on some body's blog and looked it up. I adapted it and my version is below. Oops, I can't remember what we had for our evening snack.

Broccoli and Chickpea Pasta

265 g cooked chickpeas (I used tinned, drained and rinsed them.)

1½ tbsp lemon concentrate (Use more lemon next time – 2 tbsp?)

1 tbsp olive oil

10 rose peppers, crushed

head of broccoli, cut into pieces (I use the whole thing, not just the florets.)

200 g pasta

1½ tbsp olive oil

1 dl cooking water

2 tbsp Parmesan cheese

1 tbsp Parmesan cheese, for garnish

Mix chickpeas, lemon, 1 tbsp olive oil and crushed rose peppers together and set aside.

Cook broccoli for 4 minutes. You need to keep the water, so remove the broccoli with a slotted spoon. I steamed the broccoli because I don't have a slotted spoon and it was easy to lift it out but I had to add more water before adding the pasta.

Add pasta and cook according to package directions.

While the pasta is cooking, heat 1½ tbsp of olive oil in a large skillet and add the broccoli and chickpea mixture and heat through. When pasta is done remove 1 dl of cooking water before draining pasta and add it to the skillet. Add 2 tbsp of Parmesan cheese to skillet and stir well. Mix in pasta and stir until coated with liquid. Garnish with rest of Parmesan cheese.

Chipless Days: 259
Chocolatefree Mondays: 15
Chocolatefree Fridays: 6

To Be A Vegetarian Or Not To Be?

I've been putting off going vegetarian because 1)I'm lazy and 2)I'll have to make everything from scratch because it's almost impossible to get vegetarian convenience foods here. SS said that he wouldn't mind trying though he wouldn't go completely vegetarian outside the home. (I don't think his meat and potato grandparents would understand.) So once we've eaten up all of the meat, fish, etc. that we have in the fridge and freezer (I can't afford to throw it away), maybe we'll try it. I'll have to pig out on bacon before giving it up!

I'm disappointed. I was all ready to celebrate being a year without chips but I miscounted somewhere along the line. It took me awhile to find the calendar I used last year and according to it I started on May 9th. So I still have some days to go.

Chipless Days: 354

Chocolatefree Mondays: 14

Chocolatefree Fridays: 5

Sweet Buns

I haven't been doing much lately. The last baking I did were these sweet buns I baked last month. Sugarless Friday was a disaster! I'm going to try instead to have a second chocolatefree day a week.

I'm thinking of asking SS to help me make a list of all of the meals that he would like to eat (that I'm willing to make) and rotate through that because it seems that everyday I have to come up with what supper we are going to have.

Chipless days: 310
Chocolatefree Mondays: 8

Pecan Caramel Turtles

On the I'm Knitting As Fast As I Can blog Susan mentioned that she had made pecan caramel turtles from the recipe she had found on the Stitch-N-Snitch blog. Susan had changed the recipe by using Riesen candies instead of Rolos. I was at the store the other day and saw that they had Riesen's on sale because the best before date was coming up, so I bought some, thinking of the recipe. I had a hard time finding the recipe because I thought that it was on one of the food blogs that I read, but it was on a knitting blog. I had to buy a bag of mixed party snacks so that I could get the pretzels. And pecans are very expensive here, so if I make them again after finishing these, I'll use some other nut because we didn't really notice the taste. But they are worth making.

Still struggled without chocolate on Monday. If it takes 28 times to break a habit, it will be the summer before I'm used to it. Next week I'm going to try to go Fridays without sugar. I decided on Friday because SS usually goes every second weekend to his father's and it won't be so hard on him because I'm planning on having him do it too. (He doesn't know it yet.) It will prevent him from eating his Saturday candies on Friday.

Chipless days: 283
Chocolatefree Mondays: 4

Runeberg Muffins

I didn't have any chocolate on Monday but I sure thought about it all day! I was watching a program yesterday about a woman who gave up sugar. I really doubt that I could do that but it might be something to aim for sometime.

Speaking of sugar, I made these Runeberg muffins yesterday. They have ground gingerbread cookies and raspberry jam in them. Yum. Much better than last year's that were swimming in butter. I reduced the butter by 50 g.

Chipless days: 276
Chocolatefree Mondays: 3

Much Easier

Way to go me! No chocolate again yesterday. I hardly even thought about it.
Someone had mentioned making this orange lacquered tofu on her blog, and because I have been wanting to try a tofu dish where I didn't puree the tofu beyond recognition, I thought that I would try it. But it was a disappointment and I won't make it again. Too much oil I guess.

Chipless days: 267
Chocolatefree Mondays: 2