Wilted Spinach with Lemony White Beans and Asiago

Tags

asiago cheese, avoiding bread, digestive disorders, GAPS Diet, GAPS friendly, Gordon Ramsay, hummus, legumes, lemony white beans, pappadums, wilted spinach

We’ve been very slowly reintroducing legumes into our diets after avoiding them for a while.  First it was lentils.  We added those in the wrong way, raw and ground into flour, rather than soaked and cooked, but suffered no gastric discomfort or ill effects.  Then it was garbanzo flour.  This came about when my lentil pappadums were an utter failure and I needed to add the garbanzo flour to stiffen up the dough and keep the rounds from sticking to my board when I was rolling them out.  Tonight it was white beans.  I’d intended to use them last week but it never happened.

My husband has been watching a lot of Gordon Ramsay with me.  We love all of his shows.  On one episode of his new cooking show he made cannellini beans with tarragon on grilled ciabatta.  My husband loves beans in any form and has been asking me to make him a dish similar to Gordon’s when we finally got around to adding back legumes.  I’ve wanted my Lemony White Bean Hummus every time I’ve seen the dried white beans sitting in the pantry.  Both dishes are intended to be eaten with bread and seemed as if they would be a little lackluster without it, but my husband and I are avoiding grains and bread for the time being.  To spruce things up, I came up a with a dish that was similar to each of the ones we were longing for and added in spinach to give it a little more substance.

It made for a harmonious supper.  Hopefully digestion will progress as smoothly.  If not…well I guess our rumbling, squawking bellies will be harmonizing in the still of the night as we try to sleep.  Hopefully there won’t be a trumpet solo from my husband’s side of the bed.

Ingredients:

2 T extra virgin olive oil

1 clove minced garlic

2 c. baby spinach leaves

1 1/2 c. cooked white beans

Salt and Pepper

Lemon juice

Asiago

Method:

Heat the oil in a skillet.  Saute the garlic in the oil until translucent.  Very quickly wilt the spinach in the oil and garlic.

Add in the beans and smash a portion of them with the back of a spoon.  Stir the ingredients together, seasoning with salt and pepper to taste.

Plate.  Add a squeeze of lemon juice and shaved asiago to each portion.

Makes 4 side dish servings.

Whole Grain Slice and Bake Asiago Crackers

Tags

asiago cheese, baking with oat bran, golden flax seed meal, holiday cheese ball, homemade cheese crackers, homemade crackers, slice and bake crackers, Wheat Thins, whole grain crackers from scratch, whole wheat crackers

We were looking for a healthy snack one day while we were out running around in the Christmas hustle and bustle so ended up buying a box of Wheat Thins.  This is my favorite cracker.  I  buy them so often that my kids didn’t even know what they were.  When I read the ingredients list, I was ashamed that we haven’t had them around for snacking all along.  There really is nothing wrong with them, I just rarely buy prepackaged foods.

When we made a cheese ball for part of our Fun Family Friday Night dinner the week before Christmas, I made these slice and bake crackers to go with them.  The boys and I wanted something that tasted like Wheat Thins.  Bingo!  We hit it just about on the nose with flavor but because they are slice and bake they were very thick.  Perfect size and dimension for spreading on globs of our Festive Holiday Cheese Ball.

Ingredients:

2 c. whole wheat flour

1/2 c. oat bran

2 T golden flax seed meal

1/2 c. grated Asiago cheese

1 tsp. turbinado sugar

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

1/4 c. butter, cut into small pieces

1 egg

1/2 c. cold water

 

Method:

Combine flour, oat bran, flax seed meal, salt, pepper, sugar, and cheese.  Cut in butter.  Mix with egg and water to make a stiff, dry dough.  It will be crumbly, but work the dough into a log.  Wrap with parchment paper or plastic wrap.  Chill until firm, an hour or more.

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Slice into 1/4 inch rounds.   Place on a greased baking sheet.   Bake until firm, 25 to 30 minutes.  Transfer to racks and cool completely.  Immediately store in an airtight container.

Festive Holiday Cheese Ball

Tags

asiago cheese, cheddar cheese ball, Christmas Eve menu, cream cheese ball, homemade cheese ball, hors d'oeuvres, meatless meals, port wine cheese ball, summer sausage, whole grain crackers

My husband loves cheese balls– the ones with the pasty port wine flavored center and pecan coating.  He could survive on port wine cheese balls, Ritz crackers, and summer sausage if I and his doctors would let him.  As his health problems continue and at times seem to escalate, I have decided to choose to make the lesser of two evils for our holiday meals this weekend.  We are keeping my aunt’s red velvet cake and my grandmother’s traditional fruited pound cake, it’s not Christmas without them, and passing on some of our other favorites.  I am not buying a foot long summer sausage and the mondo cellophane wrapped cheese ball he loves so much.  We will still have our annual Christmas Eve chilli and stuffed mushrooms, however, and fortunately, I am visiting family so can donate half of the two cakes to their holiday meals, as both were part of their traditions in the past, as well.

As a trade off for the absent Christmas Eve cheese ball, I made this one to accompany homemade whole grain crackers and other hors d’ oeuvres for a meatless, take-out pizza free Friday evening.  It was not exactly a low fat meal, but much better than the pizza we were having almost weekly when realized we had to wise up and see that it wasn’t helping my husband feel any better.   He handled our healthy snack food dinner well and didn’t feel bad afterwards.  None of us missed the pizza.

Ingredients:

2 oz. cheddar cheese

3 oz. cream cheese

1 oz. asiago cheese

1/4 c. chopped walnuts

Method:

Grate asiago and cheddar in the bowl of a food processor.

Blend in the cream cheese.  Shape into a ball.  Roll in chopped nuts.  Chill until ready to serve.

You can add all sorts of things to this recipe such as herbs, different cheeses, cracked black pepper.  I have made them all different ways and have coated them in all different ingredients.  Dried herbs make a nice coating.