Low Sodium Blueberry and Summer Squash Muffins

I made my family fantastic muffins last night with summer squash from my garden and blueberries from our online food co-op. Zucchini would also work. I chopped up two small summer squash with a food processor we really like, the Cuisinart Deluxe 11-Cup Food Processor DLC-8S - Cuisinart Pro.  You may use other flours, but I am particularly fond of King Arthur. If sodium and cholesterol are not issues for your family, you can substitute one tablespoon regular baking powder for the Featherweight, and two large eggs for the egg whites. Here is the recipe:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease 12 muffin tins.

  Dry Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup King Arthur All-Purpose Flour
• 1 1/2 cups King Arthur Whole Wheat Flour
• 1/4 teaspoon allspice
• 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
• Dash of ground cloves
• Dash of lemon peel, optional
• 2 tablespoons Featherweight Baking Powder

Add-ins:

• 1 cup finely diced yellow summer squash
• 1/2 cup fresh blueberries, rinsed and drained

  
Wet Ingredients:

• 4 egg whites from large eggs, beaten well
• 1/4 cup milk or soy milk (I used vanilla)
• 1/4 cup oil
• Heaping 1/4 cup packed brown sugar; more to taste

 Stir together the dry ingredients. Stir in the add-ins. Beat together the wet ingredients, fold them into the dry ingredients, and mix just until the batter is completely wet. If the batter seems too dry, add a little more milk or soy milk. Immediately ladle batter into muffin tins. Reduce oven to 350 degrees. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until done.

Lemony Asparagus Confetti Salad

Ingredients:

Please note that brown rice takes longer to cook than white rice. Plan your time accordingly, or cook the rice in advance. Using a rice cooker makes the job easier because you can turn your attention to the other ingredients while the cooker takes care of the rice. I find the rice cooker makes better rice than I can make by any other method and is well worth the money.

• 3/4 cup uncooked brown rice (1 rice cup)
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 tablespoon fresh ginger, peeled and minced
• 2 lbs. fresh asparagus, rinsed, trimmed and chopped into 1 inch pieces
•  1 cup turnip or other fresh greens, rinsed and shredded
• 1.5 cups precooked or (low-sodium) canned Great Northern beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice

 Rinse and cook the rice according to package directions, or preferably cook in a rice cooker using the rice cooker's directions. While the rice cooks, prepare the other ingredients as follows:

 Heat up the oil in a large sauce pan over medium heat. Add the chopped onion and saute about 5 minutes until beginning to soften. Add the ginger and cook for three or four minutes more. Add the asparagus, cook for two minutes more, then add the greens and continue to cook for another minute or two until the greens just begin to wilt. Set aside until the rice has finished cooking.

When the rice is done, drain if necessary--this should be unnecessary if you used a cooker according to its directions. Stir the rice, the beans, and the asparagus mixture together in a large bowl. Drizzle the lemon juice over the mixture and stir well. Serve immediately or store in the refrigerator for up to three days. Serve warm or cold.

Kale Tofu Lasagna Recipe

A gallon bag of fresh, nutritious curly kale came to me from the Coastal Farms online local food cooperative today. Joining has been one of the best decisions I've ever made. I didn't order apples from Saunders Brothers this week, for example, so I tried some that Don had bought at the local supermarket. They were nearly tasteless! They were watery and had a very slight apple flavor. I immediately missed my Saunders Brothers apples.

Studies show that the taste of our produce correlates to nutrition, so I know those supermarket apples aren't as nutritious as the coop apples, either. I told Don we're increasing our weekly order to at least 10 lbs. for as long as we can get them.

Did I mention Don has a voracious appetite for apples? The idea is to try to get through the week without buying from the supermarket.

 Don didn't argue. He can taste the difference, too.

The kale is tasty too, and a great source of Vitamin C. You can use it in lots of recipes where you'd use spinach. Here's my original recipe for a kale-tofu lasagna. It came out tasting as good as the picture looks above. I didn't have quite enough noodles, so I am estimating the number needed. It might be a little high.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Ingredients:

8 lasagna noodles, cooked according to package directions, drained. I suggest you get the water boiling while you are preparing the other ingredients, and then cook the noodles when the sauce is almost done.


Tofu filling:

• 14 oz. organic soft tofu, drained and patted dry, then crumbled in a bowl with a fork
• 2 tsp. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. dried lemon peel
• leaves from 2 sprigs fresh oregano
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• 2 tablespoons wheat germ
• 2 tablespoons ground flax seed

Sauce:

• 1/2 large watermelon radish, peeled and diced
• 3 tsp. minced garlic
• 1 medium onion, peeled and diced
• 4 cups clean kale leaves, tough stems removed, torn into bite-sized pieces
• 1 14.5 oz. can diced no-salt-added tomatoes
• 2 8-oz. cans low-sodium tomato sauce
• 1 sprig thyme and 3 small sprigs fresh oregano, tied into a "bouquet garni."
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 tsp. sunflower or other oil
• 1/4 cup Chardonnay wine

While the water is heating up for the lasagna noodles, mix all ingredients for the tofu filling. Set aside. While you are making the sauce, cook the lasagna noodles and drain. Allow to cool slightly .

Make the sauce in a separate saucepan. Heat up the sunflower oil over medium heat until hot. Add the garlic, radish, and onion, and saute until the onion begins to soften. Increase the heat to medium-high. Add the wine and the kale leaves and cover, stirring occasionally, until the kale leaves turn bright green and begin to turn tender. Add the other ingredients, lower heat back to medium, and heat through, stirring occasionally, until hot and bubbly. Remove from heat. Remove the bouquet garni and discard.

Spoon a little of the tomato sauce  into a 9x9" baking panvand spread it to cover the bottom. Line the bottom of the pan with a layer of lasagna noodles--I used kitchen scissors to cut them down to size. Layer half the tofu mixture, then more noodles, then sauce. Then layer the other half of the tofu mixture, then the noodles, then the remaining sauce. 

Put the casserole in the oven for 30 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes before serving. Serves 2-4.

Update: I made a variation of this recipe that used a combination of swiss chard and sliced button mushrooms instead of the kale. It came out pretty good, too. I had some excess moisture from the mushrooms that I was too impatient to cook off, so I strained it into some vegetable broth I am planning to use this week. The juices look flavorful.

Apple and Watermelon-Radish Muffin Recipe

This morning's muffin-making experiment turned out so delicious, I had to share. If you like your muffins sweet, replace the milk with an additional 1/4 cup of honey. I actually decreased the amount of flour by two tablespoons and substituted some flax seed meal and wheat germ, but this is optional:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease 12 muffin tins (I lightly sprayed silicon muffin cups with vegetable cooking spray).

Ingredients:

• 1 medium apple (we used Pink Lady) and 1 large watermelon radish, shredded, set aside, mixed with
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice

Dry ingredients:

• 1/4 cup all-purpose King Arthur flour
• 1 3/4 cups King Arthur whole wheat flour
• 2 tablespoons Featherweight Baking Powder
• 1/8 tsp. ground cardamom
• 1/8 tsp. ground allspice
• liberal dash of fresh-ground nutmeg

Wet ingredients:

• well-beaten whites from four eggs, separated (1/4 cup egg substitute will suffice instead)
• 1/4 cup local raw honey
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup sunflower or other oil

 Mix the dry ingredients together. Mix the apple/radish mixture into the dry ingredients, then stir in the wet ingredients until the batter is moist. Ladle into the muffin cups. Put in the preheated oven and turn the oven down to 350 degrees. Bake for 20 minutes or until done.