The Other White Meat

Well, hello there! January just flew right on by, didn’t it? Now February is almost over and I haven’t stopped in to see how everyone’s 2016 started. I hope it has treated you well so far. Ours has been full of… life. Life happens. A lot.

Papa tummy started taking little tummy to the pool for swimming lessons. I’m not sure if I’ve said before that his first job was a lifeguard and held that for many years along with teaching kids how to swim. She loves being in the water so it was going really well, but their schedule kept getting interrupted with her getting sick and then injured. She got sick again at the start of February so we took her to the emergency room as we suspected another UTI. Sure enough, it was. She just finished her antibiotic for that and is all healed up from her injury so they’re going to get back to the pool on Friday. She’s going to be thrilled!

Not much is going on with tiny tummy. She’s been working hard on trying to crawl. Every time she tries she ends up in a downward dog position. She’s still teething with no sign of new teeth coming in. She’s had her bottom two for a couple months already. She’s 7 months old so we have started to feed her some solids here and there. I’m getting much better about the baby led weaning this time around. Mostly because she seems to hate the purees I’ve made her and she would much rather have our food. She just got some baked potato for the first time tonight and didn’t choke! I’m speculating that she is allergic to coconut and hemp. Since cutting out both of those from my diet her eczema is pretty much gone. I believe what is left to be more environmental. We are probably going to get an allergy test done on her when she’s one. Until then I am really going crazy without the coconut!

Due to the new allergies in the house I have started this year off with so many firsts. I’ve been making things from scratch that I never even thought of doing before. I’ve been sharing my experiments on Instagram. There’s been ice cream, yogurt, sourdough starter, burger buns, pretzel rolls, English muffins, a nut-free mozzarella, and pineapple upside down cake. Those first three things were all failures.

I’ve tried making ice cream twice- once with hemp milk (yuck and how we found tiny tummy’s allergy), and the second time with oat milk (that was actually pretty good, just not creamy). I’m starting to think it is impossible to get a good creamy vegan ice cream without nuts or coconut.

I have tried making yogurt twice as well. Both times were absolute inedible disgusting waste of a mess. This one is really bothering me. Little tummy loves yogurt so I’m trying to find a way to make some good allergy-free yogurt for her to have. No luck yet and I have asked quite a few people for their two cents on the matter. I think I just need to get a yogurt maker instead of trying to figure out the best way to incubate it.

I really don’t even want to talk about the sourdough starter. I’m probably going to try that again once it gets warmer here. The only other major thing on my must try to make for the first time list is tempeh. I’ve been told chickpea tempeh is probably the best to try. Oh and I have yet to make sushi. I’ve been wanting to make sushi forever. Maybe this will be the year!

Do you have any new food goals for the year, either to eat or make?

Speaking of new food. Have you had jackfruit yet? If not, why? I think it’s about time you tried it. Check out this article about it. I’ve used jackfruit a few times and we love it. We always get the canned green jackfruit in water because I just don’t feel like messing with the fresh stuff. Even canned gets you an amazing result. There’s a million (okay, not a million) BBQ jackfruit recipes out there. That’s what got this fruit all the attention to begin with. However, if you’re burnt out on BBQ sandwiches I’ve got two new ideas for you.

Jackfruit Taquitos

vegan, soy-free, nut-free, gluten-free

Makes 30

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1 red onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 cans of green jackfruit in water
• 3 tablespoons chili powder
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
• salt, to taste
• 1 cup vegetable broth
• 6 oz can tomato paste
• 30 corn tortillas
• oil for brushing

Directions:

1. Prepare jackfruit by draining and rinsing. Cut the hard cores off the segments and chop those up into smaller pieces since they won’t shred. Cut any large pieces, as well. Set all of it aside.
2. Heat oil in a large skillet and saute the onion and garlic for about 5 minutes. Add the jackfruit and cook until it’s warmed up, about another 5 minutes. Use a potato masher to mash up jackfruit and shred it.
3. Add all the seasoning, mix it up and cook for another minute. Stir in the water and tomato paste. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes.
4. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and lightly oil the bottom of a baking dish.
5. Take your tortillas and warm them on a dry griddle enough to make them pliable without cracking. This usually takes me a couple minutes on medium heat.
6. Fill tortillas with a couple tablespoons of jackfruit mixture, roll up, and place seam side down in the baking dish. Try to give them a little room, but make sure they don’t unroll. Repeat until filling is gone.
7. Brush taquitos with oil. Bake for 30 minutes or until brown and crispy. Let cool before serving. Enjoy!

Jackfruit “Chicken” Salad

vegan, soy-fee, nut-free, gluten-free

Ingredients:

• 3 cans of green jackfruit in water
• juice from 1 lemon
• 1 large carrot, shredded
• 1/2 bell pepper, diced
• 1 stalk celery, chopped
• 1/4 cup minced yellow onion
• 2/3 cup vegan mayo (I used Just Mayo)
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1/4 teaspoon dill
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic
• few dashes of smoked or sweet paprika
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• splash of balsamic vinegar

Directions:

1. Prepare the jackfruit by draining and rinsing it. Cut off the hard core pieces and chop them up into smaller bits. Put all the jackfruit in a large bowl. Using two forks shred it as well as you can. Squeeze lemon juice over the jackfruit and mix it up. Let it sit for several minutes. I took this time to prep the other veggies.
2. In a small bowl mix together the mayo, mustard, dill, garlic, paprika, salt, and pepper.
3. Add veggies to the jackfruit and mix. Add the dressing the bowl and toss to coat. Stir in the parsley, splash with vinegar, and give one last stir. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.
4. Serve on a sandwich, in a wrap, or over some greens. Enjoy! Store leftovers in an airtight container. It took us a week to finish and it didn’t go bad.