Grandma's Rice Flour Pancakes

Or ricecakes, as we call them. My northern-born but southern-lovin' Mom has kept up this Deep South-originating tradition in our family for years, and ricecakes were always a treat at our house growing up. Now that I'm gluten free, they are a lifesaver. I can eat something yummy, filling, and nutritious every morning for breakfast and not feel deprived!

Rice Flour Pancakes

2 C brown rice flour (I grind mine in our Vitamix, and have started using 1 C brown rice, 1 C quinoa; I also add some flax or hemp seeds for extra  nutrition/protein...just add more buttermilk later)
2 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
1 t salt

1 C buttermilk (I usually sub with homemade or storebought kefir, or you could even use plain yogurt and coconut milk or something)
4 T oil (it calls for canola oil, but I melt coconut oil in the skillet I'm going to use to cook the ricecakes, and pour it into the bowl!)
2 beaten eggs

Mix dry ingredients. Mix wet ingredients, and combine. Stir well with spoon and add more buttermilk as needed (rice flour tends to thicken the batter over the first few minutes). Spread small amount of oil or butter on griddle or in frying pan. Pour about two spoonfuls per ricecake...remember that cakes will rise and spread. (Yes! Mine always end up too big. But that's ok because they keep me full a good part of the morning.) Don't overcook as you will cook slightly later before eating (in the toaster).

So I make a batch of these, freeze some, and put the rest in the fridge. In the morning, I put one in the toaster to warm it up and make it just a little bit crispy. Butter on top, then honey (or agave or maple syrup if you so desire). While the ricecake is in the toaster, I fry up an egg to go on top. Duck eggs are my latest discovery and I love how there's enough yolk when "popped" to cover the whole ricecake in yummy yolky deliciousness. ; ) Enjoy with a mug of hot tea, and your morning is off to a great start!

a Christmas tradition

The Nellie tradition is to bake my Christmas presents for friends, from giant decorated gingerbread men in high school, to chocolate-peanut butter whoopie pies last year. This year, despite submersion in baby prep and the notorious pregnancy brain, I managed to decide upon and make time to bake a Reid family holiday favorite: Swedish heirlooms, aka "moon cookies," which we shaped and rolled in powdered sugar as kids and left out for Santa on the hearth Christmas Eve.

Our neighbors were the chief recipients of these goodies, which required two batches one after the other and wore me out more than usual. (However, as you can see, I managed to keep up my stamina by consuming large amounts of cookie dough. And of course I couldn't eat in front of Peanut without including her in the splurge.) The courtyard in our condo complex breaks off into 13 red and blue doors behind which we and our neighbors reside, so that meant 12 bags of cookies. When I thought there might not be enough for our friends too, I thought "our friends deserve them more than our neighbors," many of whom were friendly when we first moved in but we see them rarely, and some of whom, like the lady above us, we haven't even seen or met in the five months we've lived here. But then I realized that Christmas is about giving to the least deserving, as Jesus did for us, and this was our "service project" for the year (a family Christmas tradition I am trying to start). As it ended up, there were enough for friends as well.

In taking our goodies around, Steve and I had varied experiences, from many not-homers, or those who were home but did not come to the door, to a few hasty thank you's (granted, it was a very cold night) and one chatty couple who expressed true appreciation. However, a couple of neighbors have reciprocated with baked goods of their own (always welcome!) and increased warmth. Furthermore, just last week I got some quality time with the two elderly sets of neighbors near us and was truly blessed by their hospitality, stories, and good humor.

Yes, I will divulge this recipe, as I'm sure you were hoping. The melt-in-your-mouthers are also known as Mexican wedding cookies and something else I can't remember, said the girls in my Bible study.

Swedish Heirlooms

cream together:
1 c. butter
1 c. confectioners sugar
1/4 tsp. salt

add:
1/2 c. ground almonds (or pecans)
2 c. flour
1 tsp. water
1 tsp. vanilla

Mix, then shape into crescents. When shaping, roll thin and small so they don't get too big while baking. Bake on ungreased sheet, 12-15 minutes at 375 degrees. When almost cool, roll in additional confectioners sugar. Makes about 3 1/2 dozen.

potcakes for dinner

What's funner than breakfast for dinner? And what's more surprising than to find it really is dinner, and a twist on one of your favorites?

Steve came home last night to find pancakes on the stove with flecks of green and orange in them. I wondered how he would respond. "Pancakes!...Chicken pot pie pancakes." Whoa, he's good. He was right, and I didn't even realize that was their name.

He tended the pancakes, being a man and thus quite breakfast and spatula savvy, while I finished the salad. Things were going so well that I thought I could pull the mustard in the gravy over on him, but he knew something was amiss. I repented in dust and ashes, and promised to make him a boring mustardless gravy for leftovers tonight.

The potcakes, as he called these Chicken-Pot Pancakes, were a yummy success and I'm sure we'll be making them again. Oh, and of course I substituted TJ's whole wheat pancake mix for buttermilk pancake mix. All meals must be Nellified!

what's better than a bean burrito?

...A bean, chicken, rice, and cheeeeese burrito! So far the 5 Dollar Dinners website is batting a thousand. They're two for two anyway.

So it's the end of the month and what does that mean at the Miller household? That the grocery budget is nil, again, of course. Which necessitates another visit to the 5 Dollar Dinners website. And we were not disappointed. This time I made the Chicken and Red Bean Burritos, and butchered the recipe of course. But that's the point. The point is to save money by using what you have, and the recipes are so simple they're made for that.

So I boiled a whole chicken, which is more healthy than just chicken breasts because you eek out the goodness of the bones, and have chicken broth to boot. I try to put some kind of onions or celery in the stock pot to give the chicken an extra burst of subtle flavor.

Then I used a bag of extra beans that were sitting on the freezer door forlorningly. They were sure to be forgotten and die a slow death from freezer burn. But this recipe saved them from their fate, and it turned out to be the perfect amount.

Then I made some brown rice, threw them all together in a skillet with the tomatoes, chili powder and cumin, warmed up our whole-grain TJ's tortillas, shredded some cheese and cut up some green onions that were also about to bite the fridge dust, and voila! a scrumptious aaaand very healthy dinner. And (the best part of all), he liked it!

pasta pasta!

For most of my life I would not indulge in pasta, any more than the occasional lasagna that somebody else made or a few bites of pasta salad at a picnic. I thought it was fattening, and reading the South Beach Diet book (which I recommend by the way: it taught me how digestion works and how to control my weight by eating more protein) only confirmed it.

However, I married an Italian. And, after being forced to eat well because of my health, I've discovered that you can eat as much as you want of things that are truly good for you, and be fine on the scale. And guess what, whole grain pasta is good for you! And with brands like Barilla, it tastes the same as regular (white, nutritionless, gut-clogging) pasta, even to my authentic husband.

It's a good thing I've switched over to the pasta-indulgence category, now that I'm making many Rachael Ray (also Italian, of course) meals. She has been very helpful in cooking for a picky eater who adores tomatoes, tomatoes, pasta, and tomatoes.

I recently made her Chicken Parm Pasta Toss and it is a perfect, light summery meal, and fun to make...and eat! Viva Pasta!

5 Dollar Dinners

Recently, Rachael featured a woman who used to go to the grocery store without a list (horrors, I would lose my mind) and bought whatever, and racked up a hefty receipt every time. Then things got tight for her family of four, and the only budget item they could cut was food. She went to work clipping coupons and took the challenge of creating dinners for not simply $5 per person, but $5 per meal! She was so successful and saved so much money, she started a website called www.5dollardinners.com.

So, since as of yesterday's grocery run we were already over our food budget for the month (due to a Costco trip earlier in April, which is of course shaving dollars off each TJ's and Giant receipt), I thought it was a timely idea to consult the 5 Dollar Dinners website.

Last night I made the Beef and Lentil Bake, and besides being super simple, it was surprisingly tasty! Not to mention remarkably good for certain Stevenellies. I healthified it by making brown rice, and using ground bison as we didn't have the leftover shredded beef she used. I didn't honey the carrots; used olive oil and dill instead. Com'on, I can't ever follow a recipe to the T. It must be Nellified.

Anyway, I recommend this website and look forward to trying more cheapy, yummy dinners from it.

true dedication

And THIS post is dedicated to my dedicated Mommy:
After dedicating previous posts to all my other wonderful parents, I now pause to give praise where praise is certainly due. To my Mommy.

If we're going to talk about cooking, Rachael Ray holds nothing to my Mom, who made our family three square meals, with variety, every day for 30-something years. She breast-fed her three children, cooked and ground up (in those '70s white hand grinders) our baby food, and worked hard to give us wholesome meals before Whole Foods and organic markets where around. And she kept us from making bad food choices, like Fruit Loops (oh how good they tasted at camp though!), and enforced the "one sweet a day" rule, which I intend to carry on.

Every once in a while she would let on how hard it was to come up with a new meal every night. But she did it anyway. And in trying to teach Kerry and me to cook, she asked us to make one meal a week when we were in our 20's and living at home...but I don't think we did it that often. Sorry, Mom.

Now, 38 years into her marriage and industrious cooking career, she is more committed than ever to healthful eating and living. I have heard much of a certain Vegetable Soup that she makes in huge vats and eats every day for lunch. It's so good that Daddy eats it to, and raves about it. Somehow they don't get tired of it (now that's good soup!).

She even typed up many of our family's favorite recipes, printed them on big index cards, and made recipe boxes for me and Kerry, for Christmas recently. What a gift! In fact, I just used one of those little cards yesterday in making her Zucchini Casserole, which actually gets yummier the longer it's "leftover." Even picky eaters (not just Steve this time) said "mmm" to the zucchini.

Thank you for your legacy, Mommy. Your happy and healthy grandchildren will rise up to call you blessed, when their friends are flipped out on junk food and sick all the time. "Better is a meal of vegetables where love is, than a fattened calf and hatred therewith." But we got the vegetables, the fattened calf, AND lots and lots o' love. Thank you, Mommy.

Zucchini Casserole
1 lb. lean ground beef (or I tried ground bison this time and it was fabulous! less grisly and more flavorful, not to mention better for you than beef)
2 onions, chopped
2 T. oil
1 16 oz. can diced tomatoes
1 8 oz can tomato sauce
1 green pepper, chopped
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper
1 t. minced garlic
1/2 t. oregano
4 medium zucchini, sliced into bite-sized pieces
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

Brown meat in large Dutch oven. Drain and remove from pot. Saute onion in oil. (Or reverse those and cook together.) Return browned beef to pot. Add tomatoes, sauce, and green pepper. Simmer 10 min. Stir in cheddar cheese, salt, oregano. When cheese is melted, stire and then fold in zucchini. Simmer 5 min. Turn into shallow baking dish (9x13). Sprinkle parmesan cheese over casserole. Bake about 30 min (until bubbly) on 325 degrees.