OK, I've gone too far (re: healthy cooking)

[momee]

So dh has been doing the Eat to Live thing for over a year now off and on now, hard core the first 6 mos.

Well, he says after we have the baby, we're doing it together.

I've been on board, shopping 15 different places (Food Lion does NOT sell pine nuts nor soba noodles!!) spending waaaay over the budgeted food amount (hamburger and rice were MUCH cheaper) and spending my free personal (what liitle there is) time searching out good recipes to include these new and foreign food items.

 

Soooo, after a week of soaking beans (did you know garbanzo beans were once these hard little rock things but once you soak them, cook them, mix them with garlic and olive oil and this yucko looking stuff called tahini they turn into hummus!) and trying to recover financially from our food spending this month, I decide to try a tofu and soba noodle dish.

 

OK the tofu wasn't bad if it were mixed with something besides soba noodles and rainbow chard. Blech, sputter, cough, gag.

YUCKO>

 

Now what do I do with the rest of this pack of soba noodles that cost an amount I will not disclose (in case my mother in law is reading this.) ????

 

I love my dh but this is just getting crazy! :glare:

[momee]

There was a request in there somewhere...I know you can't read my mind though, so here it is.

 

I'd love to hear from you all about your easiest, fairly inexpensive, readily available ingredients, healthy favorites that your family raves about.

 

Mine would be Trivium's pizza sauce and dough with whole wheat flour topped with feta, tomatos and spinach. I think that one gets the most reviews.

I can't make that every night though, ykwim?

 

Please save us from those slimy sobas

[Tammy]

but I have never heard of those things, LOLOLOL! There must be a reason....right? LOL..... Sorry...I am no help at all!!

 

Tammy

[Spy Car]

A tip on cooking the soba noodles (so you might enjoy them more).

 

As the water is about to come to a boil, add some cold water to the pot (to keep it under the boiling point). You should need to do this twice. And then make sure you slightly "under-cook" the noodles, and rinse immediately with cold water (or even rinse, and briefly soak the soba in ice-water).

 

Good soba is all about the "texture". If you treat it like "spaghetti" you will get unpalatable "mush", but properly cooked soba noodles can be delicious.

 

Experiment with cutting the cooking time, and aim at keeping them "firm". You may surprise yourself :001_smile:

 

Bill

[jmgconner]

Can I do a little hijack and ask for your hummus recipe? I have some garbanzo beans, plenty of garlic, even a jar of tahini. :)

[Mothering7]

Soba noodles are delicious w/stir fry veggies.

 

Some eat them w/spicy peanut butter sauce. I don't like them this way. You could make a tahini sauce instead.

 

Kelli

[sjp]

i believe in japanese restaurants they can be served plain cold with a dipping sauce. maybe you could have them as part of a japanese dinner, the other courses being maybe cooked spinach all water pressed out and shaped into little rounds (also with a dipping sauce), and some teriyaki grilled chicken, or tofu, or whatever is allowed on this program. slice some oranges for dessert. would that all be allowed?

[momee]

Hummus recipe:

 

 

1 clove garlic

1 - 2 Tbsp olive oil

2 cans chickpeas (subst. as you will with homemade or even black beans)

1/2 c lemon juice

1 Tbsp soy sauce (we love the taste of Bragg's liquid aminos)

1/2 tsp salt

Process in food processor to your desired thickness

 

I never had tahini so I left the measurement for that off of this recipe. I would think 1-2 Tbsp but not sure, we love it just fine without it most of the time.

 

Now you'll have to show me one of your fav's

[Spy Car]

Another unsolicited cooking tip.

 

When making hummus (especially with home-cooked garbanzo beans) you can get a nicer texture if you take a portion of the cooked beans, put them in a large bowl of cold water, and then gently roll them (underwater) between your flat hands. This will cause the skins to slip off and float to the surface of the water, where they can be scooped off.

 

You need to do this in batches and repeat.

 

Removing the skins, no doubt, does remove some of the "roughage"--so that is a "consideration"--but in so doing it does make the resulting hummus a lot smoother and most folks are likely to prefer it this way.

 

Bill

[Riverfront Headmistress]

I toss soba noodles with soy sauce and peanut butter.

[LizzyBee]

Now what do I do with the rest of this pack of soba noodles that cost an amount I will not disclose (in case my mother in law is reading this.) ????

 

 

Google Yakisoba recipes. Use beef or pork in it, not tofu! Yakisoba is just meat and noodles - It's what I ordered for my mom when she came to Okinawa to visit me and had a severe case of culture shock. :)

[SnowWhite]

I love soba noodles cooked like this:

 

http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/garlic-soba-noodles-recipe.html

[momee]

OH MY -

Snowwhite - those are the exact ones I cooked today. Exact recipe I used.

 

I think there's a problem though, my noodles are BLACK - these are more of a lighter brown.

 

I thank you all for the encouragement to try them again. Maybe cooking them differently will change mymind.

I've used angel hair with the peanut butter and soy sauce and thought that was yummers.

Maybe the chard and soba just turned me off?

 

Shivers...I can't even think of it anymore:D

[SnowWhite]

ROFL, I forgot that recipe had tofu.

 

What I did to "tweak" mine (which were light brown) was to use spinach instead of chard and omit the tofu.

[LizzyBee]

I think there's a problem though, my noodles are BLACK - these are more of a lighter brown.

 

 

That's interesting - I've never seen black soba noodles in Okinawa or in the US.

[Laurie4b]

I only do easy in the cooking dept. I use canned beans because they're easier. If you rinse them well, most of the sodium goes down the drain and while they're more expensive than dried, they are as healthy.

 

Barilla makes a pasta that has high fiber and proteins, flaxseed, etc. It tastes pretty much like white pasta, which my famliy prefers.

 

Fast spaghetti: Saute onions and garlic (amt. to your taste) . Heat and mash a can of pinto beans (or other mild, soft bean) until they are like thick mashed potatoes. Stir in a jar of low-sodium tomato sauce. Serve over barilla noodles. This is SO good. (I know it doesn't sound like it, but it is)

 

Barilla noodles plus chicken plus a favorite vege with olive oil, garlic, and Parmesan cheese.

 

Barilla noodles plus salmon (my family will eat canned, so it's not whoppingly expensive) plus vege. with olive oil, garlic, and Parmesan cheese

 

Salad greens with canned salmon, Brianna's Blush vinegrette dressings, almonds or walnuts, red onion, and thawed frozen peas.

 

Bean burritos: To a fat-free tortilla, add either a mixture of canned black beans, and onions, garlic, and pepper sauteed in olive oil plus avocado or guacamole or a 2 % cheese) Or in place of black beans, mash pinto beans and add cumin and chili)

 

Jane Brody has a really yummy peanut Szechuan sauce in her Jane Brody's Good food cookbook. We serve on the Barilla pasta with carrots and broccoli.