plums in the icebox

chickpea, carrot & raisin breakfast muffins

You guys, I'm really proud of this recipe. I had no idea if it would come out well or not, and it totally did! Muffins made from beans is not as weird as it sounds, I promise. You can BARELY taste the chickpeas in here. I'm not going to lie, there a very SLIGHTLY beany taste, so if you think that will bother you, this might not be the recipe to try. But these are super healthy, full of fiber and protein, and they DO taste good. Healthy, but good (not to mention, gluten free).

Last week, I really wanted to make a flourless chocolate cake using garbanzo beans, as I'd read several recipes for one. But then I was kind of like, I think I really want muffins, not cake. And something that's more of a snack than a dessert, too. Or even a breakfast baked good. 

I always use applesauce in my baked goods, just because I think it adds sweetness and moisture, no matter what I'm cooking. I used to nanny for these little girls and they'd HATE it when I subbed applesauce for oil in a brownie mix or something, I have no idea why. They just really wanted me to follow the directions on the box, I guess. This recipe gets its sweetness from the applesauce, the raisins and of course, some sugar. I didn't use any, but I think a little bit of orange juice would also be good in this recipe.

Chickpea, Carrot and Raisin Breakfast Muffins

makes 12 small muffins

total time: 30 minutes

total hands on time: 5 minutes

What you'll need:

1 1/2 cups oats

1 can chickpeas, drained

1 cup carrots, baby or shredded

2 eggs

1/2 cup applesauce

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 cup raisins

What you'll do:

1. Combine eggs, beans and carrots in a food processor and blend until well-mixed.

2. In a bowl, combine sugar, oats and baking powder. 

3. Add wet mixture to dry mixture and stir well, then add applesauce and raisins and stir some more. The batter will be very wet and very heavy.

4. Spoon into muffin tin and bake for about 25 minutes.

These are really dense, so they don't fluff up too much, as you can see. I ate two of them for breakfast for a couple of days running and I was full for hours. I'm definitely going to make these again ASAP.

roasted tomatillo and black bean tacos

I've been doing a lot of dessert recipes lately, yeah? Not that that's a bad thing, but it's time to give you a recipe that's a little more in line with the "healthy" aspect of this here food blog. Here's one that basically defines my favorite kind of food: easy, healthy and Mexican. I've only cooked with tomatillos a few times, but I saw them at the grocery store recently and picked up a bag on a whim. They look a lot like green tomatoes, but their flavor is more citrus, very tart and almost sweet. I thought that they would pair nicely with black beans for an easy weeknight taco meal.

Roasted Tomatillo and Black Bean Tacos

makes 6-10 tacos

total time: about 20 minutes

total hands on time: about 20 minutes

What you'll need:

about 6 tomatillos

1/2 onion, diced

1 can black beans

2-3 garlic cloves, diced

glug of olive oil

sprinkle of salt

about a tsp of cumin (or more, depending on your taste)

squirt of lime juice

1 avocado, sliced

cilantro to taste

What you'll do:

1. Remove the husks of the tomatillos and rinse them to get all the sap off. 

2. Dice tomatillos and place in a oiled broiler-safe pan. Sprinkle some sugar on top and stir around; this cuts the tartness a bit.

3. Broil tomatillos until they are charred and some of them are blackened, about 10-15 minutes. They will cook down and basically turn into a thick sauce.

4. Meanwhile, saute onions with garlic in olive oil in a pan. Once they're translucent, add black beans, cumin, salt and any other Mexican seasonings you might like. Cook until beans are heated through. When you're about to remove the beans from heat, stir in a squirt of lime juice.

5. While the tomatillos are broiling and the beans are cooking, wrap 2-3 tortillas in paper towel and microwave for about 25 seconds. Keep doing this until you have the number of tortillas you'd like. 

6. Layer beans and tomatillos in tortillas (I did tomatillos then beans, but I think the opposite would be better). Top with avocado and cilantro.

 Next time I might roast the tomatillos and then blend them in a food processor or something, just so the sauce is a bit thinner. It would be good to add green chiles to the sauce, too. But overall, these tacos were really good, really unusual. And very tangy, thanks to the tomatillos

eats and reads week of 6/11

a chicken I roasted during the paleo challenge

Interesting things to eat, read, and read about eating. 

EATS:

A nine year old in Scotland shamed school officials into making school lunches better by writing about them on her blog via Grist.

What should I eat for breakfast today? is a pretty new Tumblr I'm enjoying.

"Anyone that takes pride in what they grew up on and fights to tell that story is a hero to me." A fascinating conversation between two immigrant chefs about appropriation, immigration, eating and America via GiltTaste

Why do we write recipes? via Four Pounds Flour.

READS:

My friend Mike Meginnis is the writer-in-residence for June over at Necessary Fiction. 

I'm pretty obsessed with this poem by Mark Neely. 

The Hairpin books editor Nicole Cliffe on food and feminism via The Equals Record.

Erin Fitzgerald's awesome essay about being pissed off at Paula Deen and diabetes via The Rumpus .

strawberry picking and strawberry pudding

Last weekend, R and I went strawberry picking.

We got up early and drove out to Hollins Farms in Delaplane, VA, just about an hour away from our apartment. I had never been to a pick-your-own patch before, and this one was beautiful. Check out the rolling hills:

I don't know this pair, but I thought they were cute

 The actual picking was pretty fun; there were lots of people there so it was kind of hard to find good berries, but we spent about an hour and got maybe 5 pounds. It felt really nice to be out in the sun and the air, searching around through the strawberry patch. The whole experience really drove home the fact that I'd love to have a real garden at some point. Let's hope that's a soon point, because I'm getting more and more interested in growing stuff, farming and all that comes along with it, probably because I'm addicted to this ridiculously charming blog.

Strawberries were $2.50 a pound and they also had beets, swiss chard, lettuce, and spinach available to pick. In a few weeks, there will be cherries and peaches, too, so I'm hoping R will want to go out there again. We're pretty obsessed with leaving the soul-crushing traffic of the DC suburbs behind, so it shouldn't be too hard to convince him, especially if I promise him a peach pie (he lived for years in Georgia, so he loves peaches). I ended up picking some swiss chard at the farm, too, and swirled it all up in some green smoothies this week.

I thought I'd try a pudding with the strawberries we picked, but not a gross fake strawberry pudding like the kind you'd buy in little boxes at the store, but a fresh one, as I'd never really had a pudding made from fresh strawberries before. This pudding is like a really thick jam, almost like a pie filling. I combined two recipes to make it, and it came out delicious, gooey and sweet and perfect for summer. It's a nice little easy weeknight dessert, but I think it would be good if you had guests over, too. P.S. The Food Lush method is the best way to wash berries.

Fresh Strawberry Pudding

Adapted from Dessert For Two and Food.com 

makes 4 ramekins

total time: about two hours

total hands on time: 20-30 minutes

What you'll need:

4 cups of strawberries, halved with stems removed

1 cup of sugar (a scant cup, I'd say, especially depending on how sweet your berries are)

2 cups water

1/8 cup lemon juice

1/4 cup flour plus 2 tbsps

2 tbsps butter

pinch of salt

1/2 tsp vanilla

What you'll do:

1. Combine berries, sugar and water in a pot and bring to a boil. 

2. Let berries, sugar, and water cook on high for a few minutes, about eight or so. The berries should be mushy, mushy enough that you can kind of smash them up against the sides of the pot using a wooden spoon. 

3. The water should be reduced somewhat, but not totally. Stir in the lemon juice, butter, and salt, and then, using a whisk, gradually stir in the flour. I turned the heat down slightly here, too. Keep stirring it while the mixture thickens.

4. Once the mixture is pretty thick, quickly add the vanilla and stir until it's incorporated. 

5. Pour pudding into ramekins and chill in the fridge for at least an hour and a half.

I ate one pudding the same day and one the day after, and the one the day after was WAY better, so I think this is a good make-ahead dessert too. 

Some other Plums in the Icebox recipes that feature strawberries: Roasted Strawberry & Spinach Grilled Goat Cheese, Strawberry Banana Cakebread

a week of paleo: in review

So, I did it. I ate paleo for a full week!!!!!

Let me do just a few more of those: !!!!!!!!!!

I guess that doesn't sound like much to regular paleo enthusiasts, but it really feels like an accomplishment to me; it's the only kind of special or restricted diet I've ever tried and succeeded at. My last day of eating paleo was Monday, and my only slip up was on the very last day: I had a smidgen of milk in my coffee. 

But other than that? No grains, no dairy, no beans, no sugar. I seriously cannot believe I didn't eat ANY sugar for a week. I mean, I have no idea when I last didn't eat ANY candy for a full seven days. Maybe when I was a toddler? Seriously. Candy is my BFF; it's a bad, bad thing. But I'm glad to know I can exist without it! To satisfy my monumental sweet tooth, I ate fruit. I mean, duh, but I ate fruit after dinner every night, usually a big bowl of cherries in place of the Swedish Fish or Ritter bars I usually enjoy.

So how did I feel? Overally, pretty great. The second day I felt really tired: I woke up, ate breakfast and went right back to bed for another hour or so. But as the week went on, I felt very clearheaded. I wasn't full of energy like a lot of people say they are when eating a paleo diet, but I did feel different: kind of level and steady in my mind and body in a way I've never felt before. Also, I was way WAY less bloated, and I felt a lot less hungry overall, too. And I ended up losing about four pounds, which was kind of nice.

I definitely had a few moments were I was about to give up, where my brain was just screaming GIVE ME PIZZA GIVE ME CHEESE I NEED SWEETS. But I held out, and by the fourth and fifth day, I was definitely feeling less cravings for non-paleo food. I even ate at a restaurant and remained paleo; I had fish, spinach and that's it! R had to go on an unexpected trip, so he gave up paleo after the fifth day, sadly. But otherwise, he stuck to it just as much as I did, snacking on jerky rather than cereal and carrots rather than crackers. I was kind of surprised at our willpower: we didnt take out all the grains or dairy from our apartment, so stuff like tortilla chips and string cheese was right there, easily available at a weak moment. 

I should also say we weren't crazy strict: I used soy sauce on our dinner one night, and not all the meat or veggies we ate were organic or free range. If we ever go full-on paleo (extremely unlikely), we'd probably try harder to stick to every single tenet of the diet.

But I'm sure you guys want to know what I ate. Loooooooooooootttts of eggs, lots of smoothies, lots of almonds. Breakfast was by far the hardest meal to make paleo, especially because my normal breakfasts are usually yogurt and GF toast. I took pictures of a bunch (but not all) of my meals and posted them to my Instagram account (@carriemurph), so here's a selection:

Mexican Chicken w/Spinach/Frozen Banana 'Ice Cream' w/ Frozen Blueberries/ Eggs Baked in Tomatoes/Carrots, Bok Choy and Soy-Glazed Salmon/ Egg Baked in Avocado/ Paleo Banana Muffins/ Paleo Taco Salad/Avocado-Strawberry Pudding/ Strawberry Chia Seed Pudding

If you're wondering about any of the meals above, just shoot me an email or leave a comment and I'm happy to give you the recipe.

Overall, I think the experience of eating paleo, even for a week, was pretty awesome. I surprised myself with my willpower, realized I'm less dependent on specific foods than I thought, and made my body a little bit healthier. I also had to get quite a bit more creative with my cooking, as I couldn't just toss some parmesan on something to up the flavor factor, you know? Every afternoon I was half looking forward to and half dreading making dinner, but I'm pretty proud of what I came up with, even though most of them were just variations on protein + veggie.

I can't lie: I am pretty damn happy to be eating cookies (albeit GF ones), quinoa, and cheese again. But I'd recommend eating paleo to anyone, even just for a short time. It really taught me a lot about my own relationship with cooking and eating.

robert alan wendeborn's popeye salad

This is the sixth entry in my Writers Eat series. I'm asking writers I admire to share their favorite recipes and/or foods here on Plums in the Icebox. The food will sometimes tie in with the writer's work, but sometimes not. If you're a writer and you're interested in participating, let me know!

This salad comes to us by way of my very best poet friend in the whole wide world, Robert Alan Wendeborn (that's his writing name, he's known to most people as Robbie, or frequently @rawbbie).

Robbie and I attended NMSU together, and we lived about fifty feet from each other for our last year of graduate school. I introduced him at his student reading, and he introduced me at mine. We've eaten tons of meals together, smoked tons of cigarettes together (when I still smoked), drank tons of beers together (when I still drank beer, thanks GLUTEN) and read pages upon pages of each other's work. He's a badass, bleeding heart poet; Robbie's poems are all veins and lips and and surreal images, vulnerable and conversational and happening right now, on you, in you and to you. Read these poems in the recent issue of Sink Review, excerpted from Robbie's book,The Same Blank Target.

We also cowrote a now-defunct grad school food blog, Master of Fine Eats. His love of sardines is well-documented over there, and sardines make another appearance in this recipe, Popeye Salad. And coincidentally, one of my favorite lit-food blogs, Eat This Poem, featured a Sardine and White Bean Salad Recipe written after Robbie's all-time favorite poet, Frank O'Hara. So much sardine serendipity. I haven't even actually eaten a sardine since...I was maybe five years old. So this recipe is going straight into my to make pile. Well, it's not so much of a pile as a growing category in Evernote, but you get the idea.

Here's another poem of Robbie's you should read. It's about cooking with fur; let's just be glad that particular ingredient only exists in poemland and not in Plums in the Icebox land. Now, onto Popeye Salad, which looks easy, healthy and tasty, exactly the way both Robbie and I like to cook.

**

Robbie says: Popeye Salad was named as I was writing this recipe out, otherwise I'd have included sweet peas, which would be so so so good.

Popeye Salad

serves 2-3 people

total time: about 15 min

total hands on time: about 15 min

What you'll need:

1 tin of sardines in olive oil* (good sardines! spend at least $2; skinless & boneless are ok, but not as smoky)

1 container or huge handful of fresh spinach*
1 container or huge handful of arugula

juice of 1/2 lemon

cherry tomatoes

cheese of your choice (I used feta)

fancy mustard 

olive oil

balsamic vinegar

honey

salt

pepper

hot sauce

*Get it? Olive and spinach? Popeye!

1. Drain can of sardines, reserve the oil in small dish.

2. Mix 4-6 tablespoons of olive oil, 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar, 2 tablespoons honey, 2 tablespoons fancy mustard, lemon juice (these are all approx. measures; you want about 3/4 of a cup+/- 1/4 cup; if you like more dressing, you might need to add a little bit of everything) in a small bowl or jar. Stir vigorously, until the mixture is kinda thick. Add salt, pepper and hot sauce to taste (I used A LOT of pepper, a medium amount of salt, and just a dash of hot sauce).

3.Cut each sardine in half (short ways, not long ways, otherwise you'll see the bones and get grossed out).

photos courtesy of Robert Alan Wendeborn

4.Top a bed of chopped spinach and arugula with sardines, tomatoes and cheese. The type of cheese doesn't matter, just get some dairy in there. Then toss everything with dressing and eat.

**

Check out Robbie's Tumblr, too. It's funny, sad, and pretty all at once (just like his poems, DUH). Thanks, Robbie, for doing a Writers Eat post, for making poems that make me sigh and cringe at the same time, and for being my awesome friend.