Rice Paper Salad Rolls

My dear friend introduced me to doing up fresh salad rolls. I enjoyed the process of making them together, and I enjoyed the flavour and the unique texture.

My son thinks these are "really cool" and has done a bit more experimenting with fillings than I've even considered. One of my daughters refers to these as caterpillars.

We find that our frying pan is the right size for wetting the rice paper, and we use room temperature water that is leaning towards warm.

Immerse an entire cicle of rice paper (make sure the edges are all immersed!) under the water for a few seconds until it is soft (not too long; not too soft!). Place the circle onto a plate.

Salad rolls can be folded two ways (possibly more, though I only know of two):
- with one end open so they end up looking sort of like a sandwich wrap
- completely enclosed like a spring roll

I start filling the circle about a couple inches or so from the edge closest to me, depending on how many ingredients I'm using, then lay the ingredients in so I'll have a taste of everything in each bite. If you are brand new to rolls, it will only take you one or two rolls to figure out how much to put inside without the rice paper ripping. Once I've finished with the fillers, I pull the bottom of the circle up over the fillers to completely cover them, fold in the paper edges on each side, and carefully roll the salad roll to the top of the rice paper to finish it up.

Our favourite salad roll includes:
-cilantro
-shrimp
-Italian parsley or curled parsley (or go wild and add both at the same time!)
-mint
-sprouts (Josh LOVES radish sprouts in these; I prefer bean sprouts)
-cooked and cold rice noodles, thick or thin
-sometimes a leaf of crunchy lettuce
-Josh usually adds chile pepper flakes or hot sauce to his; I prefer dipping my finished rolls in hoisin

Of course, you could also use rice, pork, chicken, smoked salmon, dill, and any number of other ingredients, most likely limited only by the imagination.

Birthday!

My son LOVES food. He loves seeing it, smelling it, being around it, touching it, preparing it...and EATING IT!!

For his birthday, he and I decided to do up a birthday buffet. The menu went something like this:

-Homemade Soda bar with 5 different flavours
-Cream Puffs with Creamy Almond Filling
-Double-Chocolate Cashew Cookies
-Brownies
-Homemade Herbed Crackers
-Cashew "Cheese" Spread
-Sliced Red Peppers
-The aforementioned Almond Play-Doh Ball
-Potato Candy
-Parslied Rice with Tomatoes
-Marinated Cucumber Salad

I think that was everything; all gluten-free and dairy-free!
The potato candy was made with icing sugar, so you'll want to check labels if you plan on making some.

Recipes to follow!

How to Get 90% of your daily Iron, 40% of your Calcium, and 40g of Protein

Superstore's "no name" brand has a "six bean blend" which is a canned combination of various beans.
1 cup provides 15g of protein, 25% of the daily amount of iron, and 20% of the daily amount of calcium.

I also found a brown basmati rice there in a big brown foil bag from India; I'll look for it again next time I'm there so I can tell you the brand name. It is pesticide-free, gmo-free, and certified suitable for vegetarians, and its nutritional value is higher than many of the other rices. 3/4cup cooked provides 20% daily iron, 5g of protein, 2% of daily calcium.

So unless my math is off, doing up two servings of the rice and beans (sometimes adding tomato sauce and/or parsley and/or peas) and eating them throughout the morning provides 90% of the daily iron requirement, 40% of calcium, and 40g of protein.

Cornmeal

A few months ago, my son told me that he really missed having cream of wheat cereal, so we picked up a box of cream of rice cereal for him but the texture just didn't work for him. We decided to try cornmeal. I was very doubtful; but he loved it! And he loves eating it plain as a hot cereal in the morning.

You can get pretty creative with cornmeal.

1. Bake with it (cornbread, cornmeal muffins, etc.)

2. Cook it up as a thick hot cereal then spread it into a pan or dish to cool in the refrigerator; once it's cool, slice it up and pan-fry it til golden brown and serve as is or with syrup or dipping sauce.

3. Cook it up as a hot meal/snack with various additions.
Here are some ideas to mix in with your cornmeal:
-honey or syrup
-sugar and cinnamon
-peanut butter and/or jam
-chocolate
-chopped or mashed fruit
-chopped vegetables/small vegetables (peas, corn, etc)
-nuts
-salsa
-salsa with chicken or beans

4. Try adding different ingredients to it and use it as filler for Stuffed Peppers!

Beets and Carrots, Carrots and Beets

My neighbour received boxes of vegetables from her daughter's in-laws last week. She knew she wouldn't use them all and sent two boxes over to my place. There must have been 30-40 beets, at least 5 pounds of carrots, and the largest cabbage I have ever seen in my life! I was thrilled, but in the midst of preparing for my son's birthday party, I was at a loss as to how to pack all this fresh produce away before it lost its goodness!

So, I went to my default. I got out my blender.

My freezer now contains little bags of roasted beets, pureed beets, pureed carrots, pureed beets and carrots, pureed beets with carrots and cabbage, pureed carrots and cabbage; you get the picture. All a great way to add a nutritional boost to rice dishes and soups this winter!

I also canned a few jars of beet juice; warm it up and add just a smidge of vinegar (sometimes I also toss in a bit of dill) for a wonderful fall/winter drink.

I mixed up a bunch of rice with tomatoes, parsley, seasoning,and cabbage, and tossed it into serving-size bags for casserole starters, quick suppers, or weekend lunches.

I usually prefer food-made-fresh, but I'm now rethinking the idea of having an apartment-sized freezer again.

Tasty Little Nuggets

Yesterday I blended up a tin of 6-bean blend (well-drained then rinsed first), mixed it in with mashed potatoes, added a bit of sea salt, then added enough flour so the mixture could be easily rolled into little walnut-sized balls. I used rice flour, but I would think almost any type of flour would work for these. These could be cooked up as little balls for h'ors doeuvres or as part of a dinner plate, but this time I chose to flatten them with my palms and cooked them up in a pan with a bit of oil til lightly golden brown. Very nice with a bit of a dip but fine just on their own. Quick, nutritious, easy peasy, inexpensive, and would make a nice "chicken nugget" alternative for kids as well. Next time we're going to experiment with different spices.