Seven Spoons "International Inspired Skillet Meals for Two" my Review

We all know that sometimes there is no time to cook from scratch and as I like going grocery shopping, I always try to look for new things I could try, should I need anything really fast, or because I'm just too plain lazy to cook from scratch.

So recently I went to Sprouts and saw  "Seven Spoons" frozen meals for two....

Looks deliscious right? Well I can't say it didn't taste good, but buyer beware and look at contents closely..... out of the net weight of 654gr (23.1 oz) only 36 grams or 1.29 oz is CHICKEN!!!

I couldn't believe it.... this is supposed to be a meal for 2 people, but the amount of chicken/protein in it is 1.29 oz? And all the rest is guess what white rice a few cashews and sauce....

This is just amazing to me, how in the world do these food companies get away with this? Come on, 1.29 oz of chicken so pretty much that's 0.65 oz/ 18 grams of chicken/protein per person?

That's the amount of protein a 4-9 year old child needs in a day! How are you going to market your product as a meal for two?? This is not a meal for 4 - 9 year old children.... it's an adult meal!

For example an inactive adult male with a body weight of 185 lbs needs at least 66 grams of protein to just sustain his body functions..

Well needless to say, this is not a product I would ever buy again. Not because it didn't taste good, but because it's just wrong to advertise this as a balanced meal.... out of one portion of 328 grams.... 18 grams are actually protein, the rest..... processed white rice, a few nuts and sauce! SO disappointing!

If you ever get tempted to buy it.... just buy it for the seasoning in the sauce, which is terrific but just go and get some extra chicken to toss in..... cause otherwise, you'll have to go find it amongst all the excess rice!

Chicken-Salad Spring Rolls

Do you sometimes wonder what to do with your left-over chicken? Sure you do and so do I. A lot of times, I'm sure it's Chicken Salad, but how about making a quick easy to take along snack or meal with that Chicken Salad.

Add a avocado, some sprouts, maybe some quinoa or wild rice, and salad, roll it up and Voila!

Chicken Salad Spring Rolls! Yum!

Just shred your left over chicken finely, mix it with rice and quinoa (if you want some carbs in your filling) and then add a tablespoon or two of mayo, season with salt and pepper (or whatever you fancy) and maybe some lemon juice for a bit of acidity. Set aside.

Prepare your other items, like avocado slices, lettuce leaves, sprouts, shredded carrot and arrange them in bowls.

Cover your counter with cling film, set out a plate with water to soak the rice paper wrappers. Just place the rice paper wrappers in the water maybe 30 seconds or less, then lay them onto the cling film.

Starting with the lettuce begin filling your wrappers and roll them up like a little burrito. Start by folding down the top, then fold in the sides and then wrap as tightly as you can. Put on a plate and EAT!

These stay fresh for a day or two, just place in a container with a moist paper towel.

Bon Appetite!

You could do this as well with tuna, crab, tofu, salmon or whatever other filling comes to mind.



PS: My next favorite hobby are horses.... volunteering at this rescue is one of my favorite things to do. Can you help us to keep these seniors well? Check us out at The Golden Carrot  or if you like to donate to the cause and support The Rescue Train Race for the Rescues.

Gluten-Free Carrot Cake

I've been juicing a lot lately with my new Breville Juicer and I've always had such a bad conscience to trow away all the fruit and vegetable pulp, so I thought there must be a way for me to at least use some of it.

So I thought of making a carrot cake, as you'll need shredded carrot for it anyway, might just as well use the pulp right.... So if you are juicing carrots and you want to use your leftovers this is for you.

You will need the following:

200 g butter softened/cubed
100 g finely shredded carrots (or more if you like)
100 g ground almonds
200 g superfine sugar (I like C&H Sugar Products)
100 g sweet rice flour
1 tsp baking powder
5 eggs
1 lemon (finely grated zest)

Grab a large mixing bowl and start out by beating your softened butter until it makes little peaks, then add the sugar and keep beating, mix in a little bit of lemon juice and the lemon zest, then while beating on medium speed add one egg at a time. Once you added all your eggs and everything is nicely combined you will slowly add the shredded carrot and the almond meal.

Make sure to scrape down the edges of your bowl so you get all the buttery taste into your batter.

Then slowly and gently fold in the rice flour (I prefer Koda Farms Mochiko Sweet Rice Four), which has been combined with the baking powder.
 
I do this by hand, as over mixing will make the cake rubbery. Then transfer the batter into a 8" / 20cm spring form pan and bake at 375F/200C for about 60 - 70 Min or until wooden pick comes out clean.

If in doubt it's better to bake gluten-free recipe's a bit longer especially the ones without any gum (guar gum / xanthan gum) in them.

Once your cake is done, let it cool and you can either frost it or do a glaze like I did.

For the white sugar glaze you'll need:

200 g powdered sugar sifted
1 tbsp water
1 tbsp lemon juice

Mix the above ingredients to a very thick syrup (think thick honey), set a little aside and color with a few drops of food coloring or with some cocoa powder (you might have to add a little liquid) so you can draw circles on top of the cake to create the "Spiderweb".

To create a smooth surface for your glaze, take about a spoon of apricot jam or any jelly you like, heat in the microwave and brush on the cake with a pastry brush.

Add the with glaze and smooth with a large knife or spatula and tilting the cake. Before it sets, pipe circles in the reserved colored icing on the cake and with a wooden pick pull lines across the cake, just like you would cut your slices. If you like you can add little Marzipan Carrots too.

Let the frosting 'dry' and enjoy!

Gluten Free "Amaretti" / Almond Cookies Crispy on the outside and soft in the Center!

Thanksgiving is almost here and Christmas is not far behind, so it's time to bake cookies. Loads and loads of cookies. This year I'll be making many varieties and most of them will be GLUTEN FREE. Oh and we're making Amaretti to start, let me tell you, these babies are super delicious, easy to make and yippeeh they are gluten free too.

Amaretti are a staple in Italy, they have a distinctive Almond aroma and are nice and crispy on the outside but have a wonderful soft and chewy center. Wonderful with some hot chocolate or a hot cup of java.




Here is what you need:

400 g ground almonds
300 g superfine sugar
3 tbsp sweet rice flour (I use Koda Farms Mochiko Sweet Rice Flour)
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp cinnamon
3 large eggs
2 tsp almond flavor
1 sprinkle of salt

powdered sugar to roll your cookies in


Pre-heat your oven to 325F / 150 C

Once you've weighed out all your ingredients, start by separating your eggs and whip the egg-whites with the salt until very stiff.

Combine all the dry in ingredients in a large bowl, mix the almond flavor and the egg yolks well and ten add to the dry ingredients. Then add the egg whites, combine everything well and form a big ball of dough.

Pour some powdered sugar into a shallow dish and prepare your cookie sheets (I like to line them with wax paper). With moist hands start forming walnut size balls and roll lightly in the powdered sugar, then set them on your baking sheets.

Once you used all your dough and placed the little balls on your bakin sheets, take a glass or a spatula and press down the cookies slightly. Then bake in the pre-heated oven for about 25 minutes. The cookies should be nice and crispy on the outside and chewy and soft on the inside.


These cookies are great fresh but keep beautifully for up to a week in a tin or other storage container.
Oh and if you don't have to eat gluten free, you can use regular flour, no need to buy rice flour just to make cookies one time.

ENJOY! And let me know what you think!

Tip: if you want a little surprise inside, put little morsels of chocolate on the inside of the balls and bake as normal.

Gluten Free "Linzer Cookies" or "Spitzbuben" aka at least in our family as "Riesner Krapferl"

I was in a baking mood today and as a child I always loved baking and eating cookies with my mom and grandma. I can remember the days when we went to visit with grandma in Austria over Christmas and there were always at least 5 different kinds of cookies for us to eat. There has not been a year where grandma didn't have cookies for us.

Grandma no longer bakes, because of her bad sight, but she handed down some of her recipes to me, so I could make them. I decided to adapt my favorite, the "Riesner Krapferl" which in other parts are called Linzer Cookies or "Spitzbuben", to a Gluten-Free version.


Here is what you need:

250 g / 7.5 oz Butter / softened
100 g / 3 oz Powdered Sugar
320 g / 9.5 oz of Sweet Rice Flour (Mochiko Sweet Rice Flour from Koda Farms)
1/4 tsp Xanthan Gum
2 Packets of Vanilla Sugar
1 sprinkle of Salt

Cream the butter with the sugar, salt, vanilla sugar and powdered sugar until light and fluffy. Mix the sweet rice flour with the xanthan gum, then quickly combine the buttermix and the flour so you get a nice cohesive dough, form into a ball, cover with plastic wrap and let rest in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

Roll out the dough to about 4 mm thickness and with a cookie cutter, cut out enough bottom and top cookies. Bake in the preheated 325 F oven for about 8 minutes or until light golden.

Mix some powdered sugar with vanilla sugar and set aside.

Once the cookies are cooled, fill cookies with raspberry, apricot or whichever jelly you like. Dust with vanilla/sugar mixture and ENJOY!

You can find Koda Farms "Mochiko" Sweet Rice Flour in Asian Grocery Stores or online from my Things to Buy section. Check out Koda Farms website at www.kodafarms.com for their long history in producing superior rice products. Their entire facility is dedicated to rice products and free of any gluten whatsoever!

Gluten Free Caramel-Raspberry Yogurt Cake

I got my adjustable pastry ring this evening and I just HAD to make a cake to try how it works. So I came up with a new recipe. I didn't want anything to heavy or too fattening and decided that I would use the plain yogurt I had in the fridge to make a low fat filling. To make the sponge cake base and layers I used Bob's Mill White Rice Flour or you could also use Ener-G Sweet Rice Flour.

Here is what you need for the sponge:

2 eggs
100 g sugar, superfine
100 g butter, melted
100 g rice flour
4 tsp cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp of rum/amaretto

Melt the butter in a small sauce pan or in the microwave and set aside. In a bowl whisk the eggs, amaretto and the sugar until light and fluffy, continuing to whisk add the melted butter, the cocoa powder and then while mixing add the flour little by little. Fill in the prepared pastry ring (I opened it up to about 5,5 inches) and bake in the preheated 400F / 200C oven for about 20 to 25 minutes (it's good when a wooden skewer comes out clean). Remove from the oven and let cool, then slice into 3 layers.

While your sponge cake cools, prepare the filling:

16 oz Plain Yoghurt
8 oz Caramel Sauce
1 Envelope Knox Gelatine
Raspberries

In a bowl whisk the yogurt with the caramel sauce (or you could just buy caramel yogurt), dissolve the gelatin in a little bit of hot water and then combine well with the yogurt.

In the meantime your sponge should be cooled down and you can start to assemble the cake. Take a baking sheet then prepare a cake round ( I just cut out a circle that slightly bigger than the cake and covered it in aluminum foil). Set down the first layer and position the pastry ring around it so there is a little room between the ring and the cake. Pour some of the yogurt mixture over it and layer some raspberries, cover with the middle layer, repeat. Put on the top layer, cover with the remaining yogurt mixture, decorate with some nice raspberries and chill overnight.

Remove the pastry ring carefully and serve.......... voila, Gluten Free Caramel-Raspberry Yogurt Cake!

PS: I'd think you can make this cake with any kind of flavored yogurt and fruit of the season, like blueberries, blackberries, or coffee and chocolate. Just really depends on your taste!

Linzertorte "Gluten-Free" made with Rice and Quinoa Flour

I love sweets and "Linzertorte" is one of my favorites, it's nutty, sweet and not difficult to make. Lately I've been trying to remake some of the goodies that are very typical for my Austrian and Swiss heritage and "Linzertorte" is definitely one of them. And it is obviously named after the capital of Upper Austria, LINZ!

Here is what you need:

150 g butter or margarine  
150 g sugar
1 sprinkle salt

1 egg

1/4 tsp Cinnamon
150 g ground almonds
75 g rice flour
75 g quinoa flour

your favorite jam or fruit preserve (I like apricot, but the original recipe asks for raspberry)

If you are not GF, you can just use regular all purpose flour.

9 inch spring form pan


In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter until small peaks form, mix in the sugar and salt, then add the egg and mix until the mixture is light and fluffy.

Mix all other ingredients, then slowly mix with the butter and sugar mixture until you have a nice soft dough. Then cool in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

Roll 1/3rd of the dough onto the bottom of the spring form pan. The from the second 3rd form a roll and place on the edge of the form to create a rim. Roll the rest of the dough onto a piece of parchment paper and into 2-3 mm plate and chill.

While the remaining dough is chilling in the fridge, generously cover the crust with your favorite jam. Cut out little shapes from the remaining dough and decorate. Then brush with egg and put on the ring of the spring form pan.

Bake in the middle of the pre-heated 400 degree oven for about 35 minutes. Remove let cool and enjoy with a nice cup of coffee!


Tip: If you can, and don't need the "Linzertorte" right away, wrap tightly in aluminum foil or plastic wrap and let rest for a few days or so in the fridge. I'll be even better as it gets a bit soft.

Spicy Tuna and Tuna Roll with Buckwheat

We hadn't had sushi in a while and I've tried to make some before, but really wanted to do it again. So on my way home from work I stopped by Mitsuwa in Culver City to pick up some of the essentials for really easy rolls.

To get some additional texture into the rolls, I decided to mix some buck wheat into the sushi rice and it gave it a little bit of a nutty flavor, which went very well with the tuna.

When you buy your tuna, make sure it is sushi/sashimi grade tuna, it has to be super fresh and here in LA the Japanese markets are the best to get this. On top of that you'll find everything else you need there.

Start with cooking your rice/buck wheat as per instructions and season with sushi rice seasoning , set aside and let cool. While the rice cools down prepare the spicy tuna. I chopped about 4 oz of tuna finely, then seasoned it with a tablespoon of mayo and two dashes of  red pepper sauce (tabasco will work) added a splash of ponzu and some freshly ground black pepper. There is your spicy tuna.

Take your nori paper (seaweed) moisten it with your fingers and lay the cooled rice on top, leaving some bare. Top it with julienned cucumber (I used my Zyliss Mandoline for this) and daikon sprouts, then add the spicy tuna and roll up tightly.

For the regular tuna roll, just slice your tuna thinly and layer it with cucumber, daikon, radishes, carrot or whatever you like and roll it up the same way as you did before.

Slice up the rolls, arrange on a nice platter and serve!

"Riz Casimir"

This dish is very popular in Switzerland and I loved eating this as a child, because it combined a nice mild chicken curry and the beloved sweet canned fruit, that we usually only got on special occasions as desert. Ah memories! Now let's start bringing those wonderful days back.

Most of the prep-work for this dish lies with the chicken and curry sauce, for the rice you really don't have to do anything than just cook a plain white rice as the base of the dish.

You need the following for the chicken curry:

3 large chicken breasts (cut in cubes or strips)
butter, for frying

2 tablespoons flour (if your GF use Rice Flour or Corn Starch)
1 tablespoon curry
Mixed the two, so they are combined.

200 ml chicken stock
200 ml milk (half-n-half, if you want a heavier sauce)

1 small can mixed fruit
dab of butter

Melt the butter in a large frying pan, and fry the chicken strips or cubes, to a nice golden brown until done, you might want to do this in two batches so the chicken cooks evenly. Once the chicken is cooked, remove it from the pan to an oven save dish and keep warm in the pre-heated oven.

Melt a tablespoon of butter in a pan, add the curry/flour mixture and roast in the pan for about 1 minute only. Then pour in the chicken stock and the milk, whisking continuously until it comes back to a boil. reduce the heat and season with salt and pepper, add back the chicken and cook for an additional 10 minutes.

In another small pan, melt a dab of butter and sautee the canned fruit for about 5 minutes, so they get coated nicely with the butter.

To serve:

Place some of your rice on a warmed plate, add the chicken curry in the center of the rice and garnish with some of the sauteed fruit. Sprinkle with a little bit of parsley.

Bon Appetit! En Guete! Mahlzeit! Buon Appetito!

PS: Instead of canned fruit you can always use fresh, pineapple, bananas, peaches etc.

Orange-Garlic Chicken with Almond Rice Pilaf

Not knowing what to make for dinner and refusing to cook the same old grilled chicken breast I wanted to come up with something I've never done before. And I did, at first I was a bit worried if Hubby would like it or if it would even come out good, but WOW! Delicious! Even better, it's easy as pie to make.

It was kind of hot out yesterday so I thought that I could use some citrusy flavors in our dinner. So here is what you need:

3 to 4 Chicken Breasts (skinless & boneless)
rinse and pat dry

For the Marinade:

3 large cloves of garlic (pressed through a garlic press)
1 Serrano Pepper (cut finely)
1 Orange Zest and Juice
Fresh ground Black Pepper
Red Pepper flakes
3 tablespoons Olive Oil
Salt

Mix the ingredients in a cup or bowl well, place chicken breast in a re-sealable bag, pour in the marinade, shake so meat is covered well, and refrigerate, turning occasionally for about 1 hour or longer.

For the rice:

1/2 large Yellow Onion (or small whole Onion), finely chopped
2 tablespoons Butter
1.5 cups Rice (rinse well until water runs clear)
1.5 cups Chicken stock
1 cup Orange Juice
1/2 cup sliced or slivered Almonds

I used my rice cooker to do this, so you might have to adjust the liquids to the measurements of your rice cooker.

Melt the butter. add chopped onion, almonds and let sweat for a couple of minutes until onion looks transparent, add the rice and liquids to the measurement of your rice cooker, 3 parts stock to 2 parts orange juice, set to cook. You'll see the almonds will add a nice crunch to the rice and it's just lovely!

When your rice is almost done, start up your grill to get it nice and hot. Place your marinated Chicken on the grill, turning over once or twice while brushing with the marinate, until done.

Serve with a nice salad and a crisp white or rose wine!

DELICIOUS! Bon Apetit! Mahlzeit! En Guete!