ETL Huevos Rancheros

The idea for this recipe came from my friend Jess one night when she told me she had just cooked an egg in marinara sauce. We always trade dietetic recipes: this isn't the first time we've talked about one thing and my mind starts spinning it's wheels thinking about something else. At the root of all my brainstorming is always one very important question: How do I make that ETL?!

Jess' idea came at just the right time for me. I have been obsessed with eggs lately. It's been life-consuming and not at all easy actually. I had to figure out a way to incorporate them into this ETL life or else take the risk of continuing to occasionally order a giant burger just because it comes with a fried egg on top! :/

So now back to this: eggs in sauce.....well, that's just a few easy steps away from Huevos Rancheros!

1/2 onion, thinly sliced

1 red pepper, thinly sliced

cumin, to taste

1 8oz. can tomato sauce, no salt added

2 eggs, whites separated

Toss your sliced veggies into a pan and water-sauté them up while adding cumin to taste. I love it, so I add close to a whole tablespoon. Careful adding water, you want your veggies to cook without becoming soggy. Transfer to your plate, then add the tomato sauce can to the same pan. Bring the sauce to a simmering boil, make a little hole in the middle and pour those egg whites right in. Cover the pan and cook on extra low until they firm up. Slide the eggs onto the veggies and cover with the leftover sauce. Ta-da!

Notes:

Please play with this recipe. I've already decided to buy a carton of egg whites instead of cracking my own eggs next time. Also, I like to add whatever cooked whole grain I have on hand for texture. Maybe some black beans sautéed with the veggies? Not ETL, but a few splashes of hot sauce on top is hella good! I recommend Tabasco's Green Pepper Sauce . NOM

A Legit ETL Soup Mix!

I can't emphasize enough how difficult it is to find good salt-free shelf stable food products. Granted, ETL is all about the fresh and natural. Yeah, I'm all over that.....but, not gonna lie.....I need/want/accept shortcuts on a daily basis in anyway I can get them. I will happily commit time and effort into a project, such as modifying a recipe or experimenting in the kitchen, but that stuff happens on my time, when I feel I can spare the energy. Meanwhile, in my day to day existence and even at my very busiest, I still have to eat. These are the days I dread the peeling/chopping/grating/slicing/sauteing/baking/measuring saga that accompanies an average ETL meal and would do anything to just hit the EASY button.

All that to say: I present to you.....Frontier Soups! A mix that consists of strictly ETL ingredients. With dried onions, carrots, leeks, lentils, and a seasoning blend. I found it at my local Safeway in Washington. I was looking for buckwheat groats (more on that later, promise:), and I found this instead. I'll take it! The recipe provided on the back of the package is no bueno for ETL. It calls for butter and cheese and bread, oh my! If I was looking for a fast meal, I would put this mix in a saucepan and add water in stages (start with maybe 3 cups, add more to taste as it cooks) and let it simmer a bit to bring out the aroma and flavor in the seasonings. In true ETL fashion, I would make every effort to add greens when the soup was done, just to wilt them before serving. This is a very easy step and takes no time at all to do. Bag of spinach in the fridge? Toss in half and done. However, on this fortuitous day, I was so excited to have found this that I forgot all about that EASY button I often covet and instead allowed for some inspirational experimenting.

Ingredients:
One large yellow onion- sliced
White wine vinegar
Half a large bundle of kale- stems/ribs removed, coarsely chopped

Slice up the onion and saute it with the vinegar over medium-low heat until it softens. You can start with just splashes of vinegar and add more as it sautes, keeping in mind you can use water if you require more than maybe 1/4 cup of vinegar. Add the soup mix and 6 cups of water. Bring to a low boil. Add the kale and simmer on low for maybe 10-20 minutes. Just to allow for blending of flavors. If your soup tastes good, eat it whenever you want to!

Sidenote: Stay tuned for a blog post about all the salt-free stuff I buy at my markets.

First soup of the season!

It must be the cold, because early in the day yesterday, I found myself eyeballing my smoothie mini blender (16oz capacity). "I could totally do that," I whispered to myself. I could make my Cannellini Beans w. Spinach and then puree it in batches. And I did! I haven't been to the market, so no mushrooms this time, but I did switch it up a little bit as I often do based on what I have fresh in the kitchen by adding one medium diced shallot to the garlic while it was water-sauteing. Then the cracked pepper on top and ta-da! A hot, thick, and creamy soup for a cold evening.

Salad as an art form

For my first six months or so of this ETL life, I diligently perused bookstores, libraries, and amazon for raw and/or vegan cookbooks. I had exhausted my own ability to be creative in the kitchen with different methods of preparing natural food without fat. It took me a while to realize that raw/vegan cookbooks use copious amounts of oil and nuts. I found myself modifying recipes at the same rate as I would in any traditional cookbook. Alas, I found a few gems and one of those is The Raw Gourmet. This book is half raw cookbook and half instruction manual on how to sprout seeds and soak nuts. It has some recipes without oil (all my cookbooks must meet this criteria to be placed on My ETL Test Kitchen shelf), and great advice on using sprouts in everyday cooking. It also contains one of my very favorite quotes that I recite to myself almost daily:

"Think of salad making as an art. Seek to obtain the highest possible nutritional value from your salads while making them a feast for the eyes as well as the palate."

Love that! It's so true, too! Salads are so gorgeous with their vibrant colors, their multiple textures, and most importantly, their great tasting, highly nutritional ingredients. Making and eating an amazing salad has become an art form for me. I'm inspired by what is fresh at the market, I plan my ingredients according to taste and texture and then I create art in a bowl. Eat To Live is so rewarding on so many levels in my life. I can only hope to inspire others on their journey towards optimum health and happiness.

Simply fill a large bowl with what inspires you and toss it all up.

I like to pick out the greens to form a bed on the plate.

Top with all that yummy goodness and enjoy!

Cannellini Beans w. Spinach

One of my very favorite things to do in my ETL Test Kitchen is modify an existing traditional recipe. It probably won't ever be as good as the original (let's face it: butter, oil, animal fat, cream, and salt really are hella good). But with a little bit of effort and a healthy understanding of the negative effects those ingredients have on our bodies, the ETL version is going to be worth trying and eating!

I learned this recipe from my current client's mother who is an absolute powerhouse in the kitchen. The woman cooks the most amazing dishes from memory alone. She is a walking encyclopedia of Julia Child and Marcella Hazan recipes, two women credited with writing ground-breaking cookbooks in their time. I'll spare you the details of the original recipe, for your own good. (it includes bacon!)

Ingredients:
2 cloves of garlic
1 can no salt added cannellini beans (Eden Organic)
1/2 cup no salt added chicken or veggie stock (Kitchen Basics)
Bag of spinach
Fresh cracked pepper

Water-saute the garlic with just a few spoonfuls of water. Add cannellini beans and stock. Top with as much spinach as your pan will hold. That stuff wilts down to practically nothing. I try to add the entire bag even if it's in stages as the spinach begins to cook. Cover and simmer until the spinach wilts and the beans soften, but before the stock evaporates completely. Top with fresh cracked pepper and enjoy!

Notes-
Chicken actually isn't on ETL, but I make an exception for this stock because:
1. No way I'm making my own. I barely have time to chop all the veggies I eat in a day, let alone make a basic ingredient I can find at the market without salt.
2. It's fat free.
3. It has even less sodium than the veggie version of no salt added.
4. Did I mention I can buy it already made without salt?!

This recipe just begs to be pureed into a soup! The cannellini beans plump up and start to fall apart the longer you cook them. They would be truly creamy once pureed. I was desperate to do just that recently, but I don't yet have a blender in my DC apartment. I've decided with Winter upon us, to buy a stand-up hand mixer for just this type of thing. Soup in a flash! Also, tell me this doesn't sound good: coarsely chopped woody (maybe shitake?) mushrooms on top! Yes, please!

Oh, for shame!

It's been much too long since I've written about this ETL life I love so much. One too many burners going at once, I guess. (pun intended:) So anyway, I've got pictures and recipes piled up from the last few months ready for posting. Look for a burst of fresh, natural food coming this way!

FAIL: Creamy Tri-Pepper Dressing

I was actually really surprised this effort failed. When I rely on my own devices in the kitchen, I often end up with a meal that is mostly good but could use some tweaking or refining. That's okay, I expect that. But I made this from an ETL recipe online. Usually if I have a recipe, it's a no-fail, no-brainer. I expect for someone else to have ironed out the kinks. Which is why I was totally bummed to open up the fridge and see a cup full of what looks like chicken fat!
I suspect it was the soy milk. The recipe called for unsweetened soy milk. I only had light. That's the only thing that differs from the original recipe. I am determined to try again (and I'm honestly curious to find out where I made a mistake).