Photo by fellow wine lover Stephanie A Jones

Yes, Lindsay its true.  Starting on Monday Im going to being sharing my food blogging prowess on another site called Forkful of News  with a handful of other food loving ladies and gentlemen.  You know just in case you werent getting enough of my gluten free, sugar free, low carb ramblings here, now you will know where to find more of them.  

It is run by Lindsay of Wasted and local theater writing fame.  I will be joined by Jacob (who is known as "the chef" around here) among others that Im excited to get to know better or encounter for the first time.  It will be a mostly Madison WI centric blog about mostly healthy but always exciting eating with all seven of us sharing our very different perspectives on food. 

Ill mostly be posting about stuff that doesnt fit in the theme here.  Non-Montignac friendly meals, local restaurant reviews, my adventures in trying to be gluten free in the often clueless Midwest.  It will be a fun change of pace.  So come check it out, meet my fellow bloggers, and see what Im up to over there every Monday.

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All the pictures I took of this lovely breakfast are horrible blurry because I was too busy making yummy noises and doing the happy I love my life dance to take a good picture. These pancakes were out of this world. The impromptu blueberry and agave nectar sauce only made things better. I dont think I stopped fawning over them the entire time I was gobbling them down. The fella is the best one ever for making these lovelies.

The rich crunchy almonds and flax seed contrast nicely with the citrus and they create a great texture. You would never know that they are grain free. Add in a blueberry syrup and this is the breakfast of champions. Even the dog loved her couple bites of them. You can see how stunned she is over getting to eat some of the best pancakes ever.



My only pointers to you are that if you decide to use dairy instead of soy milk that you add it towards the end as you probably wont need to use the full amount called for in the recipe as regular milk is much runnier than soy. We ended up with pancakes that had some structural integrity problems because of this. We also didnt have any bean flour and ended up grinding some oats as a substitute which probably didnt help the batter stay together. They were still outstanding and you can bet we will be making these again, next time Ill invest in some bean flour to see what a difference it makes.

Grain-Free Lemony Almond Pancakes

1/2 cup natural almonds (raw or lightly toasted)
1/4 cup finely ground flax meal

2/3 cup plain or vanilla soymilk (if using regular milk you wont need as much liquid)
1 tablespoon agave nectar
1-1/2 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1/3 cup chickpea flour (I used finely ground oats as it was the only comparable thing in my kitchen)
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt

In the bowl of a food processor, whir the almonds and flax until you have a very fine meal the texture of coarse cornmeal. There should be no large pieces of almond visible.

Add the milk, agave, oil, lemon zest and lemon juice and whir again. Allow to sit while you prepare the dry ingredients, or at least 2 minutes.

Heat a nonstick frypan over medium heat (I use cast iron). Add the remaining ingredients to the processor and whir just until blended.

Pour a small ice cream scoop or 2-3 tablespoons worth of batter onto hot pan and cook for about 3-4 minutes, until bubbles appear and then pop on the surface of the pancakes and the edges look dry. Gently flip and then cook another 2-3 minutes on other side. Keep cooked pancakes warm while you continue with the rest of the batter. Makes 8-10 small pancakes.

Original recipe from Diet Desserts and Dogs Blog.

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Sure Rachel Ray can make a slew of 30 Minute meals when all of her ingredients are pre-chopped and pre-measured.  Thats not that big a deal really, we could all do that if we had a posse of people behind the scenes to prep our food for us too.  Worst of all her recipes are seldom very healthful.  Sometimes tasty and interesting but with enough fat and spice most things are.  

Heidi Swanson over at the beloved blog 101 Cookbooks does what Rachel Ray only wishes she could.  Some of my favorite recipes from her are ones that are done in a matter of moments by using up the left over bits from the fridge and best of all shes a master at making delicious but healthy food.  The trick to these recipes like the one for Asparagus and Brown Rice below is to have everything prepped and ready to go before hand.  It might seem like a long list of ingrediants but all the work they require is chopping and cooking briefly.

Aside from being a snap to make if you skip the almonds this dish is also excellent for those low fat/high carb nights on this diet that can get so tedious to try to cook for.  It has all sorts of benificial fiber from the brown rice and garbanzos, crisp green asparagus and the tahini dressing adds worlds of flavor wihtout tons of fat. This is one of my favorite go to meals for when I have left over brown rice and garbanzos, those are the important bit you could sub in any veggie you had on hand for the asparagus with similar results.

Ten Minute Tasty Asparagus and Brown Rice

Tahini Dressing:

1 garlic clove, chopped

1/4 cup tahini

zest of one lemon

scant 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons hot water

scant 1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 or 2 14-ounce cans of chickpeas, drained

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 medium yellow onion, chopped

1 bunch asparagus, cut into 1-inch segments

3 cups cooked brown rice

1 cup almond slivers, toasted

fine grain sea salt

Make the dressing by whisking together the garlic, tahini, lemon zest and juice, and olive oil. Add the hot water to thin a bit and then the salt. Set aside.

Add roughly 3 tablespoons of olive oil to a big skillet over medium-high heat. Swirl the oil around to coat the pan, then add the chickpeas and sprinkling of salt. Let the beans saute there for a couple minutes.

Add the garlic and onions. Stir for a minute. Stir in the asparagus with another pinch or two of salt, cover with a lid for a minute or two to steam - just until the asparagus brightens and softens up just a bit. Uncover and stir in the rice and almond slivers, reserving a few almonds for garnish. Taste and add more salt if needed . Serve in a big bowl drizzled with a few tablespoons of the tahini dressing, let each person add more dressing to their tastes.

Original recipe from 101 Cookbooks blog.

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Last weekend the fella and I had a couple of friends over for a ridiculous French dinner. Apparently it was such a good meal that we may have tempted them over to what they called our wine and cream diet. If anyone I know could handle the rigorous nature of this diet its them, theyre foodies who dont mind making things from scratch and like to experiment with new things. Hopefully we reeled them in, it would be nice to have some one else to talk about living in a world without bread and as the fella and I have learned this crazy diet does work.

This soup may have blown their minds a tiny bit. Its basically almonds, eggs and heavy cream cooked in a fussy way. It doesnt seem like it could be legal on any diet not even a strange French one. But alas it is and it was pretty tasty. It was tasty even though I screwed it up a little bit.

Having dipped into the cooking wine before dinner—purely for the purposes of testing which one was driest of course—I apparently was unable to read the recipe correctly. Admittedly the original recipe is poorly written so in this case Im not taking all the blame. I missed the tiny side note near chicken stock in the ingredient list that calls for it to be warmed and waiting before starting to cook anything else. Of course, thats pretty important why wouldnt you make “warm the broth” the first step in the recipe? That would be too easy.

Neglecting this step was probably what caused the almond mixture to settle to the bottom of my soup. In my retyping out of the recipe I made the directions more clear so that no one else has to make the same mistake. Not that we noticed, the soup was still lovely the way it was. Very subtle and rich. The cream and nuts made it a heavy soup but the flavors were very soft. It went nicely with the Riesling I served with dinner. The sweet wine makes you salivate slightly and the cream satisfies your open taste buds. It was quite the experience.

Other recipes from the Riesling Feast:
Roasted Cauliflower and Fennel
Saras Braised Leeks
Riesling Chicken
Beet Torte

Soupe Aux Amandes

1 quart chicken or vegetable broth
6 ounces almonds, shelled and peeled
3 hardboiled eggs, yolks only
3 cups heavy cream
2 egg yolks
slivered almonds

In a large sauce pan put the broth over low heat to warm through as you prepare the other ingredients.

Put the almonds and the yolks of the hard boiled eggs in a food processor and process until you have a smooth paste.

In a pot combine the almond mixture and 1 1/2 cups of the cream. Slowly add the heated broth. Bring to a boil and simmer for about 5 minutes.

In a large pot, not over heat, whisk together the raw egg yolks and the remaining 1 1/2 cups heavy cream. When the almond and cream mixture has cooked pour it slowly into the pot with the egg yolk mixture, and whisk while over medium heat for about 2 minutes. DO NOT BOIL.

Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve when soup is just heated through. Top with slivered almonds.

Original recipe from The Lutece Cookbook.

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