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Soba Noodle Salad with Creamy Peanut Dressing

October 9, 2015 by Maui Flour Child 2 Comments

Hello Old Friends,

I’ve had a lot of requests lately for vegetarian recipes, so I thought I would dust the cobwebs off my blog and share one with you. Oh the technical hurdles I had to leap to get here! But now that I am here, it feels right. I apologize for my pictures. My Nikon (like my hair) have seen better days so I am taking my pictures with an iPhone (and eating lots of biotin).

This recipe is an adaptation from the cookbook Plenty and was recommended to me by a friend and amazing mom-chef. It’s become a staple at our table much to my youngest daughters dismay. Hey, three out of four likes at our dinner table is a success in my mind. I hope you love it as much I do!

Let’s get started.

Ingredients

1 package organic soba noodles,

1/4 cup shelled edamame, blanched

1 cup chopped broccoli, blanched

1 carrot, peeled and thinly sliced

1 cucumber, peeled and thinly sliced

1 red bell, thinly sliced

avocado

cilantro and green onions

nori

For the dressing

1 clove garlic, minced

2 t ginger, peeled and minced

1 T sesame oil

3 T natural, smooth peanut butter

3 T lime juice

2 T tamari

2 T- 1/4 cup filtered water

First, set a large pot of water to boil. Done.

Next, assemble and prep your veggies. There are no rules here, so use whatever you like or whatever you have in your fridge. I quickly blanched my broccoli and edamame, everything else is raw and thinly sliced.

Once the water comes to a boil, cook your soba noodles according to the package directions.

While the noodles are cooking, let’s make the dressing. Combine the minced ginger and garlic with the sesame oil, peanut butter, lime juice, tamari, sugar and water. The amount of water you use is up to you. I personally like the sauce to be on the thinner side. I feel like it blends better and still coats the noodles nicely.

Drain your soba noodles and add them to a large salad bowl.

Top with your prepped veggies, and toss with your peanut salad dressing, chopped cilantro, and green onions.

I like to add half an avocado sliced onto each plate. Next time I make this I will also add chopped up strips of nori.

This is one of those righteous dinners that leaves you feeling full and satisfied but not weighed down. Make enough so you can eat the leftovers for lunch the next day!

Filed Under: Vegetarian Tagged With: peanut dressing, soba noodle, Vegetarian

What to Cook if a Rock Star Comes for Dinner

October 6, 2014 by Maui Flour Child Leave a Comment

Let’s face it. Anything can happen to anyone at anytime, so it’s best to be prepared.

What if one day your husband called and said, “By the way, (favorite rock star) is coming over for dinner tomorrow night.” Don’t laugh, it could totally happen!

We’re talking Billie Joe from Green Day, Perry Farrell from Jane’s Addiction, Eddie Vedder, Joan Jet, you get the picture. A rock god whose poster used to hang on your bedroom wall is coming to your house for dinner!

What in the world are you going to cook? I mean these are rock stars and rock stars are foodies. How do I know this? Well…. [Read more…]

Filed Under: BBQ, Fresh Island Fish Tagged With: butternut squash, Coconut Milk, fresh island fish, lemongrass fish, yellow curry paste

VIP Gingersnap Cookies

May 9, 2014 by Maui Flour Child 1 Comment

I am very popular these days. Not so much out in the big, bad world. But right here in the Terry household, I am the most popular person.

I imagine this will all change someday as my kids get older and start scoring goals in soccer games and getting A’s on important papers. The spotlight will without a doubt shine bright on them, and my role will shift to #1 fan. But for now, everyone fights to hold my hand. They fight if I spend a minute more reading with the other. They keep tabs on kisses and hugs. Even my husbands gets huffy if he doesn’t get time with me. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Cookies Tagged With: cookies, fresh ginger, gingersnaps

Homemade Giardiniera Recipe

March 16, 2014 by Maui Flour Child 1 Comment

My family has an unhealthy obsession with olives, pickles and yes, spicy giardiniera! In fact, I started getting a little concerned by how many store bought jars of this stuff we were going through. I figure, if I make my own pickled vegetable, at least I will know what exactly is in there and what kind of vegetable are being used.

Guess what? There’s no way I can go back to the store bought variety, this is so much better. No surprise there. But really, can something pickled taste fresh? Cause it does.

It’s simple, all you need is a large tupperware or 2 large mason jars if you want to make it look pretty, and a little bit of patience. The patience is the hardest part, I had to talk my husband out of going to the store to buy a jar of this stuff while he was waiting! I told you, unhealthy obsession. There’s worse vices out there though, and we take consolation in that.

What should you do with your jars of giardiniera? Assuming you don’t eat it all with your fingers straight from the jar, you could chop it up on a salad. You could put it on top of a sandwich or maybe on a meatball sub. Yum! You could casually pull a jar out of your fridge when you have guests over and serve it as a little snack. No big deal, this is totally homemade and organic.

Whatever you do, use fresh vegetables, local and organic if possible. And put the vegetables you like in there! I might make my next batch just straight cauliflower for my daughter. You also can control the spice level. I kept it real mild, but next time- it’s on!

Ingredients

cauliflower, half a head chopped into nice size florets

4 carrots, peeled and sliced

1 red bell pepper

1/2 jar drained sliced peperoncinis

2 1/2 cups white vinegar

3 cups water

3/4 cups sugar

5 TB kosher salt

1 t whole grain mustard

1/4 t red pepper flakes (or more, or maybe a sliced jalapeño pepper, or maybe sirracha!)

Directions

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Get an ice bath ready. You are going to quickly blanch the cauliflower for 2 minutes in boiling water (no more than this), drain, then stop the cooking process by tossing the cauliflower into ice water. Some people blanch the carrots as well but I do not like cooked carrots, I do not like them Sam I Am.

Bring the vinegar, water, sugar, salt, mustard and pepper flakes to a gentle boil and stir until the sugar and salt is dissolved. Let it cool.

Arrange your vegetable in your mason jars or toss them in a plastic bucket with a lid. Whatever. I personally am an arranger. Oh yeah, maybe I should mention in case you were wondering, we’re not canning anything here. I’m just putting them in mason jars for fun, and because I don’t know how to can things. I am going to keep mine in the fridge and we are going to eat them within a week. Ok, probably in 2 days.

Once the liquid is cooled down, pour it over the vegetables, put on the lid and into the fridge they go all pretty and dolled up. Now this is the hard part. You have to give it at least 8 hours for the flavor to really develop and marinate the vegetables. So no touching until tomorrow!

Aloha,

Filed Under: Sides, Snacks Tagged With: Carrots, Cauliflower, giardiniera, vinegar

Brown sugar ginger glazed Salmon

February 21, 2014 by Maui Flour Child Leave a Comment

I’m so excited about this recipe! I made it for my husband on Valentine’s Day and it was so yummy. I didn’t even mean to make it this delicious. Some kind of magic just happened once I started cooking.

My husbands favorite dinner of all time is salmon with twice baked potatoes. So since babysitting wasn’t in the cards for us this year on V-day, a favorite home cooked meal and a nice bottle of wine was a must. I normally grill my salmon but it was pouring rain outside and a hungry voice inside kept whispering “broil it”.

I had a vague idea of what I wanted. Something sweet, something savory, something glaze-y, something you would pay $35 for at Nobu in Waikiki with no fighting, tattling children nearby. I got 3 out of 4.

You’re going to start by mincing the garlic, ginger and onion.

Then you are going to lightly sauté these aromatics in butter over medium low heat for 1-2 minutes.

When you add the brown sugar, well, that’s when the magic begins. A lot of great things come from cooking sugar and butter together. Mainly caramel. Your going to keep cooking over a gentle heat until all the brown sugar is dissolved and it’s thick and bubbly and looks like this. Ah yeah.

Then turn off the heat and add the soy sauce a little at a time. Be careful and stir because you don’t want it to bubble over all crazy and make a huge mess on your stove.

You should have a nice glaze for your salmon cooling on the stove by now, and you should be feeling like a total kitchen rock star.

Turn on your broiler. The secret with broiling fish is to put the rack in the middle of the oven so your dinner doesn’t go up in flames.

Spray your sheet pan with nonstick spray. I once tried to do this with parchment paper and set my smoke alarm off. So Pam is a better option for me. Lay out your salmon fillets and brush with the magic glaze.

Into the oven they go. It’s going to cook quick, probably under 5 minutes depending on the size and thickness of your fillets. So stay nearby and keep a close eye on your salmon. You are going to have to use your kitchen intuition a bit to gage when it is done. The goal is to caramelize the top while keeping the inside moist.

I hope you love it!

Ingredients

ginger, 1 inch peeled

garlic, 1 clove

onion, 1 thin slice (about a TB after it’s finely diced)

4 TB butter

5 TB brown sugar

2 TB soy sauce

4 fillets of salmon, mine were about 4-5oz each

cilantro or chives to garnish

Filed Under: Main Course Tagged With: brown sugar, ginger, salmon

Carrot Cashew Pate at a Superbowl Party?

January 28, 2014 by Maui Flour Child 2 Comments

My relationship with football started with my Dad when I was a young girl. My Dad loved the Chargers, watching football with my brothers, and drinking Coors Light on a Sunday. I naturally wanted to be included.

When we were kids, if you were going to ask Dad a question, even a simple one, you had better be prepared for a 3 hour seminar. You should’ve seen the way his eyes lit up when I asked him to explain football to me. He ran to get charts, markers, chalkboards, you name it. The X’s represented the offense and the O’s the defense. My Dad suddenly had become an NFL coach. There was nothing he didn’t know about the game, and he was going to explain every detail to me.

Within the first few minutes of my football lesson, something happened to me. It was really quite magical and I didn’t know I was even capable of doing it. What happened you ask? Well, my brain turned off, and my mind went to my happy place. I continued to nod my head and smile but I was a million miles away and nothing went in. Nothing at all.

My first date with Bill (aka my football fanatic future husband) was to a Ducks football game. I was a freshman in college and he was a junior. The night before the game we were at a party when he asked me if I liked football. “Yes!” I lied, “I love it.”

So bright and early the next morning he was there with his friend Ryan to pick up me and my friend Martine. He was there 4 hours before the game started, mind you! 4 hours! 8am on a Saturday is very early for a hungover college kid, but I really liked him so I got myself up and out of bed. My closet at that time of my life was a colorful collection of black jeans, black t-shirts and black hoodies. Dang, no green and yellow. Strike one. (Wait that’s baseball.)

Over the river and through the trees to Autzen stadium we went. We found Bills’ family at a tailgate party and I kid you not every family member, from wee little babies to Grandma, was dressed from head to toe in green and yellow. Now I know there are a lot of college football families around the country that bleed their school colors, but they’ve got nothing on the Terry family. Nothing!

I stood around in the freezing cold, trying to act like I wasn’t completely out of place, and forced myself to drink a Coors Light. Bill’s family saw right through me. “Who’s your friend Bill? Doesn’t she know to wear green and yellow to a Ducks game?” Strike two.

Finally, we went into the stadium and the game started. We sat in the student section, and when I say sat, I mean we stood. The group of drunk, smelly, shirtless guys behind us wore only body paint to keep warm. They stomped their feet and chanted, and when I say chanted, I mean shouted, “F U CLA!” the entire game. Well…. probably the entire game. I don’t really know because Martine and I didn’t make it through the entire game. We left at halftime. Strike 3, you’re out! Bill and I didn’t go on another date for 2 years.

That was a long time ago. Since then there has been a lot of growth in my relationship with football. Truth be told, more times than not, I’ll be staring at the TV, listening, paying attention when my mind starts to wander to my happy place and I’m suddenly brought back into the moment by the shouts of “Touchdown!” So what if my cheers are a few beats too late. I’m proud to say that I genuinely enjoy football now, and when I say genuinely, I mean sometimes. I own all kinds of Ducks t-shirts and I wear them (to the gym) with pride. And if nothing else who doesn’t love hanging out with friends, drinking beer and eating?

Which brings me to eating. Have you ever had Carrot Cashew Pate? Delicious! It’s one of my favorite snacks. It’s vegan, creamy, healthy and has a lovely, bright flavor thanks to the lemon and dill.

Should you eat it as a dip instead of hummus? Yes! Should you spread it on a toasted rice cracker and top it with arugula and tomatoes? Yes! Should you try it wrapped in a collard green leaf with sprouts and cucumbers? Absolutely! Should you make it for your Superbowl party this weekend? Ummmm… You know, I might not be the right girl to answer that question.

Carrot Cashew Pate

3 carrots, peeled and shredded

1 cup cashews

1 TB fresh dill

1 stalk celery, chopped

1 slice onion

1 clove garlic

1/2 lemon

1/2 t salt

pepper

1/4 cup water

Kickoff

I only had raw cashews on hand and I really wanted roasted, salted cashews. So I preheated my oven to 325 and gave my cup of cashews a quick 10 minute toast. You can do this if you want or you can skip it if you’d like to keep the recipe raw, or you can buy roasted cashews from the store.

Next, get your cusinart out and get all your ingredients together. I use the grater attachment on the Cusinart to shred my carrots.

Throw it all in the cusinart with 1/2 teaspoon of salt, the juice of half a lemon and a few cracks of black pepper.

Turn it on and slowly add 1/4 cup of cold, filtered water until it all comes together.

Garnish with chopped fresh dill and serve with crudités, flat bread or crackers.

Here’s to another great football season! Until next year,

Filed Under: Snacks, Vegetarian Tagged With: Carrots, cashews, dill, dip, spread

Homemade Mac n Cheese with Cauliflower Crumble

January 15, 2014 by Maui Flour Child 2 Comments

All my New Year’s resolutions seem to contradict each other which has made for a confusing start to the year.

For example…

Resolution #1- Be more natural. By this I mean, use all natural products when cooking, cleaning and bathing. I even want to switch to all natural make up!

Resolution #2- Try something new. (like Botox)

See how that’s not going to end well. It’s hard, even for me, to tell if I’m joking or not.

Resolution #3- Be a more open, smiling, approachable person. You know, the type of girl you might see at the gym and say, “Hey you look nice, want to be our friend and cook great meals together, and paddle board, and go on an occasional ladies champagne lunch?” Does that happen?

Resolution #4- Get a big, badass tattoo on my right arm. (Sorry mom)

You don’t think that will scare away any potential friends, do you?

Resolution #5- Less waste. In the kitchen, shopping, money, lunch boxes, all around- less waste!

Resolution #6- Substantially reduce the amount of cheese and bread I consume.

I have a somewhat ridiculous amount of fancy cheese left over from the holidays in my refrigerator. In my book it’s not Christmas without a drawer full of cheese and I may have overdone it this year. Now, I don’t want to eat it all, but I can’t just let it go to waste!

What to do? [Read more…]

Filed Under: Pasta, Sides Tagged With: Cauliflower, cheese, mac n cheese, Superbowl

Shaved Brussel Sprout Salad with Dijon Maple Vinaigrette

November 25, 2013 by Maui Flour Child 1 Comment

We are on the road and it is cold! I forgot how cold the mainland can be. I also forgot how seriously the mainland takes the holidays. There are lights everywhere with north pole trains and hot chocolate and Santa’s workshops and ice skating! It’s very exciting for my kids. And for me!

Since I’m not in my own kitchen for Thanksgiving this year I have been giving the task of making a side. Which totally means that I get to hang out with family and friends outside of the kitchen! Sounds very relaxing!

There’s been a whole lot of talk about Brussel sprouts going on in my family. Who’s going to make them? Is there going to be enough? Some people want them whole and roasted, some fried with the leaves peeled! It makes me very happy to see my family take the matter of brussel sprouts so seriously. It gives me a sense of belonging to know there are other people like me in this world!

The only reasonable thing to do is to have brussel sprouts done 5 different ways. Here’s how I’m making mine. A shaved raw salad with smokey bacon, nutty broccoli, toasted coconut and a maple Dijon vinaigrette to tie it all together.

Ingredients

10 brussel sprouts, trimmed and washed

2 carrots, peeled

2 cups chopped broccoli

1/4 cup marcona almonds

1/3 cup coconut chips

4 thick slices of bacon (optional, but a very good idea)

1/4 cup dried cherries or cranberries

2oz goat cheese

For the Maple Dijon Vinaigrette

2 tb whole grain mustard

3 tb apple cider vinager

2 1/2 tb maple syrup

1/3 cup olive oil

And we’re off!

Get out your cusinart and fit it with the slicer blade. You could totally do this by hand, it will just take longer. Since we are eating the brussel sprouts raw you want to make sure you trim the stem and peel away any yucky looking leaves. Into the cusinart they go and ta-da!

Into a nice, large salad bowl the shaved brussel sprouts go.

Let’s start building this epic holiday salad. Peel 2 carrots and throw them through the slicer, easy. Heat up a large pan with a little bit of olive oil and toss in the chopped broccoli. Cook over medium heat until nice and toasty. You want to bring out the nutty flavor of the broccoli.

In the same pan, dry toast your Marcona almonds. Now this salad is starting to look good.

Would my Grandpa eat it? Not quite yet… Let’s keep building.

In the same pan toast your coconut chips. Keep a close on them cause they toast up real fast. Your should be able to smell a little bit of Hawaii coming through all those fabulous Thanksgiving aromas. Put these toasted coconut chips off to the side and add them to the salad just before serving.

In the same pan (like how I’m saving you from extra dirty dishes, yeah, I got your back) crisp up the bacon. Obviously, adding bacon is optional but I found it to be a very good idea. I’m also pretty sure it is the only way I will get my Grandpa to enjoy a raw brussel sprout salad.

Let the bacon cool down on paper towels.

Full disclosure- I had a very strong desire to go rouge and dump the whole salad in that pan and fry the shaved brussel sprouts in the leftover sizzling bacon fat. I stopped myself but it’s probably going to happen sometime between now and Christmas. Just so you know….

Crumble or chop up the bacon if it isn’t crumbling according to plan.

Bacon, goat cheese, dried cherries and coconut chips top the salad.

Haha, every picture I take the salad suspiciously has less bacon.

For the salad dressing add the dijon, apple cider vinegar, maple syrup and olive oil to a mason jar and shake, shake, shake. Be generous with the dressing and toss this salad before serving.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Filed Under: Salads Tagged With: bacon, brussel sprouts, Goat Cheese, Marcona almonds, salad, Thanksgiving side

Fresh Squeezed Salad and Bucket-Filling

November 5, 2013 by Maui Flour Child 1 Comment

As we were driving home from school the other day I overheard my kindergartner talking about bucket-dipping. Hmmmmm? Have you heard of this before?

“What’s bucket-dipping?” I asked.

Here’s how she broke it down for me:

“Mom, if someone is being mean to you or if they say they don’t like you, that’s bucket-dipping. If you want to have fun and be happy with lots of friends you have to have a full bucket. You can be a bucket-filler too. If you see someone who’s sad and you ask them if they want to play with you, that’s bucket-filling.” [Read more…]

Filed Under: Salads, Vegetarian Tagged With: asian pear, Beets, carrot, ginger, kale

Lentil and Farro “Falafel”

October 29, 2013 by Maui Flour Child 1 Comment

I’ve been trying lots of new things lately in the kitchen and in life.

I find that the older I get the more anxiety I have about this. It is most important to try new things when you feel a resistance to stepping out of your comfort zone.

Why you ask?

Well for me, it is so I can find the compromise between the person I want to be and the person I actually am.

The person I sometimes think I want to be is a bit of an extremist. She has a clean car, organized closets and she is radiating health from a raw food diet and a day of kayak surfing.

Yeahhhhh.

I made I made a raw, vegan cashew cheese. Have you ever had that before? It’s pretty good. But then I remembered that I’m not vegan and not on a raw diet and real cheese is really just so much better. I made it half a day on raw cashew cheese and salad and then had a feeding frenzy snack attack like none other when my kids got home from school.

And as for kayak surfing, the only wave I caught was the shore break that sent kayak, paddle, hat, and myself scattered along the beach in front of a small but notable audience. Not exactly the graceful ocean exit plan I had in mind. Luckily for me awkward is the new cool. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Appetizers, Vegetarian Tagged With: falafel, farro, Lentils, Vegetarian