Thursday, April 19, 2012

One Eggtastic Year

On my one-year blogversary, I meant to write the things I learned along the way. But as you recall, I spent those days fighting off something I’d never wish upon anyone. I had recipes lined up for that week, most of which I couldn’t even muster the energy to write them down (let alone make it). But today is the last day of taking the antibiotic, and hopefully I’ll be back on my fitness regimen and social calendar by Monday. 


For now, I’d like to share some of what I’ve learned these last twelve months. For instance:
  • I learned that measuring ingredients by weight makes recipes easier to follow and more precise.
  • I learned that there is a huge difference between healthy food and eating healthily.
  • I learned that taking things too seriously is not the same as seeing them as they are.
  • I learned to accept the mistakes I’ve made, both in and out of the kitchen, and that the best way to move on is to let it go.
  • I learned that life is one huge experiment that has more than one equation and more than one answer.
  • I learned to work around my “weaknesses” instead of denying ever having them at all, making me a stronger person as a result.
  • I learned that comparing myself to others is a disservice to both parties involved.
  • I learned that my dreams are enormous… and so are my plans to seeing them through.
  • I learned that food is a philosophy in of itself and that making a recipe is as rewarding as writing poetry. 
  • I learned that grain-free flours are my favorite to use and how applesauce makes a great sugar substitute.
  • I learned that progress is still progress, no matter how small you think it is, and that I’ll get to where I want to be soon enough.

As for what I hope to learn, I plan:
  • To enhance my cooking technique and plating skills
  • To really understand how digital photography and editing works
  • To become a better writer
  • To write many restaurant, book, and product reviews
  • To go on food-related adventures (i.e., farmers markets, food/health/environment festivals, conventions, etc.)
  • To understand as much as I can about hypothyroidism, how it relates to my health (eating and fitness included), and how it can help others find healing
  • To accept that I am human, that I do make mistakes, and that I don’t have to be perfect
  • To make delicious confections, desserts, and finger foods that holds to the Meals With Morri motto
  • To focus on being happy and healthy and not on how much I weigh
  • To be relaxed and able to handle whatever stress comes my way
  • To continue avidly rock climbing and running, and to also balance my activity with meditation, yoga, and the right food intake

And I invite you all learn along with me.

This recipe is one I’m particularly proud of, because it has everything you like about egg foo young without all the stuff you don't like. Back in my BGF days, we used to order Chinese takeout often. We consumed vast amounts of fried chicken wings, fried rice, fried egg rolls, and we would switch egg drop soup for hot and sour when the mood struck us. But once in a while we ordered the egg foo young, an eggy mass completely submerged in gravy of indiscernible origins. It was a way of feeding me vegetables without my catching wise, but I have a feeling it wasn’t the healthiest option on the menu.

Initially I was going to make separate the mixture into individual servings, cooked one at a time for every plate. My biggest concern, though, was that one person may not get an equal amount of the veggie goodness in their omelet. So I did the next best thing: I turned it into a frittata.

It had to be done.

This recipe doesn’t include gravy, simply because I felt it didn’t need it. Instead, I drizzled the top with sesame seed oil, providing a lovely flavor that didn’t overpower the rest of the ingredients. The dish turned out to be light and filling in all the right ways, and a great new way to keep egg dishes interesting.

Veggie Love Egg Foo Young Frittata

3 Carrots, coarsely grated
1 Celery rib, coarsely grated or finely chopped
1 White onion, finely chopped
100 g (around 2 c.) Mung bean sprouts*, cleaned and patted dry
1/2 tsp. Sea salt
1/4 tsp. Cracked pepper
1 tbsp. Black sesame seeds
8 Large eggs, lightly beaten (yolks and whites still separated)
Coconut oil, for greasing
Sesame oil, for garnish

Combine the veggies in a mixing bowl and fold in the eggs and spices until evenly distributed.
Place the coconut oil in a large iron skillet pan on medium heat, and then pour the egg mixture and cook until the sides begin to bubble.
Place the dish under the broiler until fully cooked (about five minutes… but watch it closely!).**
Slice into the desired number of servings and garnish with sesame oil.
 Makes 1 frittata, 4 – 8 servings depending on if it is a main dish or an appetizer.

* Can’t find mung bean sprouts? For those who tolerate soy, they can be substituted with soy bean sprouts.
** If you don’t have a broiler, or feel uncomfortable using this method, look to my crustless quiche recipe and follow those instructions.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Well Enough to Cook

Even after a few days of recovery, writing has proven itself difficult. It has nothing to do with the physical ability; typing isn’t rock science. Regardless, even after a week of doing absolutely nothing, these few sentences are hard to put into words.


Maybe the muck monster was offended that I put its offspring with the vegan muffin in such a negative light. Maybe it was just a matter of time that my self-fulfilling prophecy of my crashing led to my... well, crashing. Maybe it was a lot of factors that formed into the infection that my parents contemplated sending me to the ER for.

I was bedridden because of a sinus infection. Yes, I know how ridiculous that sounds. I thought a sinus infection meant a sniffle and a runny nose, maybe take a day off from work and exercise, and then I'd be right as rain a day or two later. This wasn’t your typical sinus infection, though. It was the debilitating kind. The kind that started off like a minor case of springtime allergies and slowly progressed into something terrible. By the Easter weekend, I had lost my ability to smell and taste, and my Easter weekend “Hot Crossed Buns” recipe left me in a slump because I couldn’t tell if it was a winner or not. I developed such a tremendous toothache I thought my upper right wisdom tooth was growing in. (The sinuses had gotten so inflamed they started applying pressure to my jaw, giving me the worst toothache imaginable.)

These tasted better than they looked, I swear.

By the following Monday, I went with the community center to the Natural History Museum, and it was a miracle I could stay upright. My nose was red. My eyes were bruised. My head was spinning. My patience was limited. Sadly, this was only the beginning.

I was able to get an appointment with an ears and throat specialist on Wednesday, and I was in such bad shape I couldn’t even drive myself to his office or drop off (and pick up) the medicine he prescribed. I entered the waiting room with my frontal, sphenoid, and ethmoid sinuses so swollen, the pressure turning me into a sobbing mess. For days I was crying because it hurt so badly, and the Neti Pot only provided temporary relief. The skin around my eyes was purple, and my face looked like I had gotten into a fight… and lost.

After I had gotten the medication to treat it, I had to deal with the side effects of the prescriptions. Thankfully the mental stuff went away in twenty-four hours, but I was emotionally sensitive to everything for days. I found myself angry with people for no fault of theirs, and crying when they made a joke or said something in the attempt to be lighthearted. I was weak and fatigued and felt terrible about myself for not blogging or exercising. I couldn’t stand for longer than a few minutes before becoming winded and dizzy. Sunlight physically hurt, and I’d lost all sense of a constant body temperature.

It has been over a week, and I’m finally able to write, to go to work, and (hopefully) exercise by the weekend. I was able to make dinner the past few nights, and my restlessness to go out into the world has been seen as progress in the most positive and obnoxious way. 

I peeled AND deveined them myself! First time too.
Fluffy Pancakes, mango chunks, and df banana-almond butter syrup

But being sick does gives you time to reflect, whether you want to or not. There’s not much else you can do when you’re bedridden. There were moments where I was really down and feeling sorry for myself. I was upset that I was sick and in pain, yes, but I was more upset with what I couldn’t do. I couldn’t do yoga, run, rock climb, or go outside. I couldn’t blog or cook or take pictures. I could feel all of my hard work these last few months of getting in shape melting away as I ate and slept and not much else. I could feel my body getting softer, my stomach getting rounder, and my arms weighing me down.

I tried doing the little things to keep me active (i.e., clean my room, laundry, doing dishes, going up and down the stairs), but the inability to stand for more than a minute and feeling so crappy nipped that idea in the bud. On a positive note, I noticed the amount of food I ate was similar to the amount I consumed while exercising, the only difference being that I actually felt satiated and didn’t wake up hungry. I now have a baseline of what I can eat when I am sedentary, a foundation to build up the necessary nutrition for when I’m active.

As I said, being sick gave me time to reflect and observe the present. I’m not feeling sorry for myself anymore, and the things I want to do for the world don’t seem impossible.

Bangin’ Banana Bread

120 g Quinoa flour
120 g Garbanzo bean flour
80 g Unsweetened applesauce, room temperature
40 g Honey
1/2 – 1 tsp. Sea salt
1 tsp. Baking soda
1 tsp. Cream of tartar
120 ml Almond milk (unsweetened vanilla), room temperature
 2 Large eggs, room temperature
120 g Unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 – 2 Ripe bananas, mashed  

Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
Combine the flours, leavening agents, and salt in a mixing bowl.
In a quart measuring cup, blend together the applesauce, honey, almond milk, and eggs until you have a smooth consistency.
With a hand mixer or a whisk, add the wet ingredients to the dry until just combined, and then slowly pour the butter until all has been added.
Fold in the mashed bananas (if you don’t want clumps, I suggest blending it with the wet ingredients and stirring until smooth) and pour the batter into a greased loaf pan.
Bake for 50 minutes, or until the blade of a pairing knife inserted in the center come out clean.
Let it cool in the loaf pan for 15 minutes before popping it out onto a cooling rack.

Makes 1 loaf, or 12 thick slices. Remains soft in the refrigerator, and is ideal at any temperature. 

Thursday, April 5, 2012

The Basic Salad Dressing Everyone Should Make

There is nothing quite like a salad to make you feel all healthy, especially when a fork is optional and you can eat it with your hands.


Many of my recipes are main courses or starter dishes, and I really want to balance what recipes I blog about. That means more desserts (no complaints here), beverages, and condiments.

And what is a salad, or in this case a tuna salad lettuce wrap, without a dressing?

What I love most about this dressing is that it can be made right before you need it. Shake it, blend it, or emulsify it, you will have a dressing that’s good on just about any salad you can think of. 

French Dressing (inspired by the recipe found in Joy of Cooking)

60 ml Lemon juice (from two lemons)
135 ml Olive oil
1/4 tsp. Sea salt
1/4 tsp. Cracked pepper
1/2 tsp. Dijon mustard

Place all the ingredients in a bowl (or blender), and mix until combined.
Make when needed, as it is best when used immediately.

Makes around 3/4 c.

With this recipe above, you have a base for a plethora of dressings when you want healthy fats that aren’t animal derived. If you have leftover avocado, you can mash it up to make avocado dressing.

Avocado Dressing

1 French dressing recipe, see above
1/2 Avocado, mashed

Look to the instructions for French Dressing.

Makes about 1 c.

This recipe is also best when used immediately, and I found that it tasted a lot like hollandaise sauce, vegan style.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Baking Brownies for Springtime

I can’t believe it has almost been a year since Meals with Morri made its debut. Only, instead of pancakes, I have the pleasure to join a number of amazing gluten free bloggers in this month’s Gluten Free Ratio Rally… 


making brownies.

So much can happen over the course of twelve months, and I am always surprised how time quickly passed me by. Twelve months of recipes, life experiences, mistakes, laughter, sorrow, and change. Twelve months of coming into myself, and still learning something new every day.

And I couldn’t have done it without you all.


Spring is such a fascinating season, and a perfect time to reflect the past year. You think about all the things that stressed you out and left you in a tizzy, most of which don’t exist anymore. You look at all the experiences you had and the lessons you learned, some of them less than pleasant and a pain in the butt to deal with, and then you realize that you survived it. You made it to now, and that’s quite an achievement.

Like my very first post, I have found myself sleep-deprived because of hunger, eating an apple with almond butter and an AB & J socca pancake at two-thirty in the morning because my stomach won’t settle for less. So there I was, half asleep and staring blankly into the skillet, watching the bubbles pop on the surface of the huge pancake I made before I put it under the broiler to escape flipping my monstrous creation. I think of the dreams I woke up from, dreams of pouring muffin batter into a non-greased tin before realizing my mistake, of my camera lens chipping, of talking to an old friend like the conflict with their family never happened. Even without sleeping more than four to five hours at a time, even with the week of sniffles and coughing and delirious tendencies, I still went to work and exercised (when I felt I could), two things I know will bring me crashing sooner rather than later.

Springtime brings change and perspective just as bluntly as it brings pollen and allergies. It brings you finicky weather and it brings you a new season of plants to garden, harvest, and eat. Most importantly, at least I think so anyway, it shows you just how bountiful this new year is going to be for you.

For my Grandpa B, that means chickens.


For my household, that means a new compost heap. (Thank you, guys. I love it.)


For my job at the community center, that means awesome “Where the Wild Things Are” themed trips during Spring Break.



For my blog, that means posting recipes, insights, and facts about living a healthy gluten free (among other things) life, loving myself, working around having a thyroid condition, and looking towards sustainable development to help the world community.

And finally, for this post, that means brownies.

I learned something this time around, and it has finally sank in: simple is hard to do. I wanted to do some pretty crazy ingredient combinations and themes for this month’s GFRR, ranging from nut butter marble and vegan bite-sized brownies to strawberry shortcake and piña colada blondies. Really though, the fact you participate at all is something of a feat. Many (if not all) of the participants will congratulate you on a job well done, cheering on the sidelines as I do for them.

In the end, I decided on making a brownie inspired by all that I learned in my Mesoamerican anthropology class. I was particularly fascinated by the cuisine and the plants and animals that were domesticated. But what really got me excited for this month's GFRR was because of the Aztec’s most revered chocolate drink, the Xocolātl.

The result was a fudgy cake-like brownie. It was moist and sweet and just spicy enough to make them “strangely addicting”, as Mama Dazz called them.

Thus, the Oaxacan (WAH-HAWK-CAN) brownie (I named for the Zapotec/Mixtec state found in southern Mexico. It was ruled by the Aztec for a few decades until the arrival of the Spanish.) was created.

Trial 2: Essentially a fudge recipe with an identity crisis

Now, I want to let you know where I goofed up these delectable desserts. 

As I looked at my original recipe and compared it with the ratio while typing this post, I realized why my brownies turned out the way they did. For inspiration, I looked at another person's recipe that called for sweet potato, so naturally she didn’t use the amount of sugar as is usually called for.

That, and I think being sleep deprived played a crucial role in this too.

But just so you know, while I still stand by my brownies, I am glad I made both of them again using 250 g of honey/maple syrup. Another thing you must consider is the creaming method with the eggs and the sugar you choose, because the fat in mine were particularly testy when I didn't. That, and putting cold applesauce on the butters coagulated the fat content and turned my first batch into an epic flop of all Flopdom.

So, if you have walked away and learned anything from making brownies, I sincerely hope it's the creaming method and the importance of bringing ingredients to the right temperature before using.

The ratio is similar to what was offered to the GFRR: 2 parts chocolate, 3 parts butter, 3 parts eggs, 6 parts sugar, and 2 parts flour.

Trial 3: Ding, ding, ding!!! We have a Winner!
Oaxacan Brownies

57 g Unsweetened chocolate
32 g Unsweetened Dutch process cocoa powder
113 g Butter
165 g Honey
85 g Unsweetened applesauce, room temperature
2 Large eggs, room temperature
62 g Quinoa flour
1/4 tsp. Chipotle powder
1/4 tsp. Sea salt
Dash of cayenne pepper
Stevia, optional
Cocoa nibs, as garnish

Preheat the oven to 325ºF.
Melt the chocolate and butter together on very low heat, and then set aside to cool.
Mix the eggs with the honey and applesauce until well blended and add to the melted chocolate.
Sift the flour and cayenne and fold in the chocolate mixture.
Pour the batter into a greased 8x8” (or smaller for a thick and dense cake-like brownie) oven-safe pan, and bake for 35 - 40 minutes until done.

Makes 1 batch, or 8 squares.
As you can see, the brownies were cakey and rich, with a moist crumb that the applesauce helped to provide. On the other hand, the blondies were like gooey snickerdoodles of epic blonde brownie proportions. The mesquite played beautifully with the cacao butter and maple syrup.

The modified recipe for the MCB's still needs a little tweaking, a little too wet for my preference, but the taste is out of this world yummy. 

And just to be different, I baked it in a pie pan.

Photo of 1st Blondie batch with updated recipe below
Mesquite Cacao Blondies

85 g Unsweetened applesauce, room temperature
113 g Cacao butter
165 g Maple syrup
2 Large eggs, room temperature
31 g Mesquite flour
31 g Garbanzo bean flour
1/4 tsp. Sea salt
1 tsp. Bourbon vanilla

Preheat the oven to 325ºF.
Melt the cacao butter and maple syrup together in a double broiler on medium heat, and then set aside to cool.
Mix the eggs with the applesauce and vanilla until well blended and add to the melted cacao butter.
Sift the flour and salt and fold in the wet ingredients.
Pour the batter into a greased 9” pie pan, and bake for 45 minutes until done.

Makes 1 batch, or 8 slices.

I think it's time you head on over and see what the other GFRR participants made, don't you think? Trust me when I say that you won't be disappointed in the least! Our host for brownies was the great Mary Fran of FrannyCakes, a woman who keeps it real with amazing recipes, uses food for healing, and makes my mouth water from the photos she takes for all of us who love good-for-you food.

Oh yes, hear her (us) roar.

Adina from Gluten Free Travelette made Chocolate Brownie Pie with Orange Zest
Angela from Angela's Kitchen made Gluten & Dairy Free Cream Egg Brownies
Brooke from B & the boy! made Triple Chocolate Brownies
Caitlin from {Gluten Free} Nom Nom Nom made Peppermint Brownie Bars
Caleigh from Gluten Free[k] made White chocolate and marshmallow brownies
Caneel from Mama Me Gluten Free made Triple chocolate brownies
Charissa Luke from Zest Bakery made Slutty gluten-free brownies
Claire from My Gluten Free Home made PB&J Brownie Whoopee Pies
Claire from This Gluten-Free Life made St. Patty's Day Marshmallow Swirl Brownies
Erin from The Sensitive Epicure made Mexican Cocoa Brownies with an Almond & Pepitas Crust
gretchen from kumquat made salted caramel brownies
Heather from Discovering the Extraordinary made Nutmeg Blondies
Irvin from Eat the Love made Blueberry Citrus Marble Brownies
Jean from Gluten-Free Doctor Recipes made Blue Ribbon Brownies
Jenn from Jenn Cuisine made Grain free brownies with no-bake ricotta cheesecake cream
Jonathan from The Canary Files made Vegan Marbled Banana Walnut Brownies
Karen from Cooking Gluten Free! made GF Chewy Crackled Top Brownies with Raspberry Puree
Mary Fran from FrannyCakes made Gluten-Free Hazelnut (Nutella) Brownies
Morri (Me!) from Meals with Morri made Oaxacan Brownies & Mesquite Cacao Blondies
Mrs. R from Honey From Flinty Rocks made Black Bean S'More Brownies
Pete and Kelli from No Gluten, No Problem made Caramel Mexican Chocolate Mesquite Brownies
Rachel from The Crispy Cook made Co-Co Nut-Nut Blondies
Shauna from Gluten-Free Girl made Gluten-Free Brownies
Tara from A Baking Life  made Chocolate Flourless (Mint) Brownies
TR from No One Likes Crumbley Cookies made Gluten Free Berry Fudge Brownies