ONIONS & SPINACH: Caramelized Onions and Roasted Spinach

Why onions?

Onions are a member of the alliaceous family (along with garlic, leeks, shallots and chives).  “The sulfur compounds of this family…reduce the carcinogenic effects of nitrosamines and N-nitroso compounds, which are created in overgrilled meat and during tobacco combustion. They promote apoptosis (cell death) in colon, breast, lung, and prostate cancer, as well as in leukemia.” (David Servan-Schreiber, Anti-Cancer, page 123).

Why spinach?

“…all the bright-colored fruits and vegetables (orange, red, yellow, green) contain vitamin A and lycopene, which have the proven capacity to inhibit growth of cells of several cancer lines, including brain gliomas.” (David Servan-Schreiber, Anti-Cancer, page 122).

CARAMELIZED ONIONS & ROASTED SPINACH

The process of slow roasting the onions and spinach cooks down the veggies so that each spoonful of cooked veggies is equal to about THREE spoonfuls of raw veggies! This means that you can sneak a lot of veggies into your meals by adding just a few tablespoons of these great roasted veggies!

Here are a few of the foods to which I often add caramelized onions or roasted spinach – or both:

• Hummus
• Rice
• Beans
• Quinoa
• Cottage cheese
• Egg whites (Just add this mixture to the recipe for Egg White Puffs)
• Soups (Just mix into almost any soup!)
• Pasta sauce

Also, the mixture of caramelized onions and roasted spinach makes a great side dish for chicken, fish, or grass-fed lean beef. For more flavor, just add any herb and spice combination that you like – even just a dusting of freshly ground black pepper and a pinch of salt!

Ingredients

• 2 pounds yellow onions, chopped
  • I didn’t specify organic onions. That’s because, of all vegetables and fruits, regular (non-organic) onions have the least pesticide residue, according to the Environmental Working Group.

• 2 pounds frozen chopped organic spinach
  • I specified organic spinach. That’s because regular (non-organic) spinach comes with a fair load of pesticides, according to the Environmental Working Group.
  • Whole Food’s 365-Brand frozen Organic Chopped Spinach is the frozen organic spinach that I use most often.
  • I don’t bother with fresh organic spinach for this recipe because the frozen version saves so much time.

• ½ cup extra virgin olive oil

Directions (Note: Total baking time is 1 hour and 15 minutes.)

• Cut the onions into chunks. For example, if you have medium-size onions, cut them into quarters and then again in half, so that you have eight chunks.

• Place about 2 cups of the onion chunks into the work bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade. Using the pulse function, pulse for 4-6 times, or until you have small, but not tiny pieces of onion, as you can see here:

just some of the chopped onions

• Empty the food processor and process the next two cups in the same manner; then repeat until all the onions have been chopped.

• Note:  I have an 11-inch Cuisinart food processor. Sometimes, I just dump all 2 pounds of onion chunks into the work bowl of my food processor, and pulse until the onions are finely chopped. This works, but the onions are not as uniformly chopped as when you do only 2 cups at one time

• Take a rimmed baking sheet and line it with aluminum foil or a silicone baking mat (for example, a Silpat mat that covers the entire pan, size 11 5/8 X16 ½-inch mat made for 13 X 18-inch sheet pan; US half size.) Place the lined baking sheet inside another rimmed baking sheet. (This creates an air pocket and keeps the onions from burning.)

• Place the chopped onions on the lined baking sheet and drizzle half of the olive oil (¼ cup) over the onions. Mix the onions and olive oil to distribute the olive oil.

• Using your hands (if you don’t mind them smelling like onions) or a non-metal spatula, spread the onions out evenly over the entire pan; set aside.

• Take a third rimmed baking sheet and line it with aluminum foil or a silicone baking mat.

• Pour 2 pounds (2, 1-pound bags) of frozen chopped spinach onto the lined baking pan.  Drizzle the remaining ¼ cup of olive oil over the spinach and mix the spinach around to distribute the olive oil.

• Place the pan of spinach on the middle rung of the oven and the pan of onions on the lower rung of the oven.

onions and spinach going into the oven

• Turn on the oven and set the temperature for 400 degrees F.  Note: In this case, I don’t preheat the oven, because it would just waste energy.

• After 45 minutes, open the oven door –  WHILE TURNING YOUR FACE AWAY — so that you don’t get a blast of hot steam in your face. Take one pan out of the oven.

• Use two non-metal spatulas and mix the more cooked veggies (those on the sides of the pan) with the less cooked veggies (those in the center of the pan). Then pat the veggies down so that they evenly cover the entire pan. Put the pan back into the oven on the rack it came from.

• Remove the second pan of veggies from the oven. Use two non-metal spatulas and mix the more cooked veggies (those on the sides of the pan) with the less cooked veggies (those in the center of the pan). Then pat the veggies down so that they evenly cover the entire pan. Put the pan back into the oven on the rack it came from.

• Let the pans of veggies bake for an additional 30 minutes.

• Then turn off the oven and remove both pans from the oven. Use the non-metal spatulas to mix the veggies in each pan around and then spread them out so that they can cool.

• When cool, place the caramelized onions and roasted spinach in glass containers; refrigerate.
• Of course, if you like, you can also freeze both the caramelized onions and the roasted spinach in – you guessed it – silicone mini muffin pans to make “flavor cubes” for use later. . (For more on the technique of freezing in silicone mini muffin pans, see Monamifood Basil Pesto Flavor Cubes.)

Enjoy and be healthy!

~Leni

BROWN RICE: Golden Rice

Why brown rice?

It’s a lot better for you than regular white rice! “…ordinary white rice should be avoided and replaced by brown or white basmati rice, for which the glycemic index is lower.” (David Servan-Schreiber, Anti Cancer, page 63)

This doesn’t mean you should eat LOTS of brown rice. As Dr. Servan-Schreiber says, “Above all it’s much better … to eat vegetables and legumes (beans, peas, lentils). Not only are their glycemic indexes low, but their potent phytochemicals fight cancer growth every inch of the way.” (David Servan-Schreiber, Anti Cancer, page 63)

GOLDEN RICE

In order to make brown rice rich in the “potent phytochemicals that fight cancer growth,” I now add turmeric and black pepper to every pot of rice I cook. And the result is a gorgeous golden rice!

For example, when we had friends over for dinner one night, I made two stir fry dishes – an Asian stir fry and Indian stir-fry (like a biriyani) — and both were made with Golden Rice, (but in the Asian stir-fry, I used less turmeric than in the Indian stir-fry).

Ingredients

Brown rice

• My personal favorite when it comes to making almost any brown rice dish (except a stir fry, and I even manage to use it for stir fry dishes sometimes) is the variety of brown rice called Sweet Brown Rice or Korean Sweet Brown Rice – available in the Asian supermarkets and by mail order. The word “sweet” in the name of this rice is misleading. It’s not sweet; it’s just sticky. It’s a short grain rice that clumps together when cooked. Has a very chewy texture. Cooked Sweet Brown Rice (as well as any cooked rice) freezes well and can be defrosted easily in the microwave.

Filtered water

Turmeric and freshly ground black pepper

• Turmeric and black pepper are a potent anti-cancer combo, as discussed in an earlier post, Turmeric and Black Pepper . In addition, new research indicates that turmeric and black pepper are especially effective against breast cancer (stem cells). For a summary of this new research, see Dr. Servan-Schreiber’s blog.

• How much turmeric and black pepper should you use when making rice? It’s up to you. Experiment; start with a little turmeric and add more next time until you get the proportion of turmeric to rice that works for you. But here’s a rough guide based on my experience:

1. For a light golden color and a slightly but not noticeably earthy taste, I add about a teaspoon of turmeric and a few grinds of fresh black pepper to two cups of raw brown rice.
2. When I want the earthy spicy flavor of turmeric and black pepper, I add about 1 tablespoon turmeric and a generous amount of freshly ground black pepper to two cups of raw brown rice.

Note: I will measure carefully and report more exact proportions here soon.

Directions (rice cooker, my preferred way to cook rice)

• Rinse the rice under cold running water until it’s no longer cloudy (about 3 rinses).

• Place the rinsed rice into the bowl of the rice cooker. Add the water according to the directions for your particular kind of rice. Someone once told me that the water level should be about one knuckle above the rice and this works pretty well for me (I have small hands, though).

• Add turmeric and black pepper, according to your taste.

• Press the button for cooking and wait until it’s done. That’s it!

Directions (stove top)

• See the Purcell Mountain Farms for stove top (and rice cooker) directions for preparing many different varieties of brown rice.

Enjoy and be healthy,

~Leni

TOMATOES and THYME: Roasted Grape Tomatoes with Thyme

Why tomatoes and thyme?

Researchers have found that lycopene, found in tomatoes, helps fight cancer, as explained in my earlier post, Sun Dried Tomato Flavor Cubes. Also, terpenes found in thyme, help to fight cancer, as explained in my earlier post, Basil Pesto Flavor Cubes.

ROASTED GRAPE TOMATOES with THYME

I had just finished baking a few batches of biscotti and the oven was still hot. So I thought: What can I cook now while the oven is still hot? With two pints of beautiful grape tomatoes on hand, I decided to bake the tomatoes so as to have a great side dish to go with the fish we are having for dinner. (By the way, Lady Moon Farms Organic Grape Tomatoes are currently on sale at my Whole Foods store – and maybe at a Whole Foods near you – for only $1.99 per pint, and that’s half their usual price.)

Ingredients

2 pints grape or small cherry tomatoes (organic, if possible)

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Salt to taste, if desired

1 – 2 teaspoons fresh thyme (leaves), to taste

It can be tedious to strip thyme leaves off of their stems, so here’s a time saving tip I just discovered for making this process quick and easy (and, contrary to what I had stated earlier, I just found that this works whether the thyme has woody or soft stems!)

• Wash the fresh thyme and spin dry it
• Place the spun-dry thyme into a quart-size plastic bag for the freezer and freeze.
• When the thyme has frozen, remove the bag with the thyme from the freezer, and without opening the bag, grab onto the sprigs of thyme and rub them vigorously against each other. Very soon (or in no time at all), almost all of the leaves of thyme will fall off the stems and end up in the bottom of the freezer bag!
• Now when you need a teaspoon of fresh thyme, just spoon it out of the freezer bag!
• Note: To be kind to the environment and save yourself some more time, re-use the plastic bag — without washing it. When you’ve used up all the thyme leaves and only the stems remain in the bag, toss out the stems, but keep the bag, as is, in the freezer. Then just add more clean fresh thyme and repeat!

Directions

Line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Place the grape tomatoes onto the baking sheet. Drizzle the olive oil over the tomatoes and mix them around with your hands so that all the tomatoes are lightly coated with olive oil. Add freshly ground black pepper and salt, if desired, to taste.

Place the pan with the tomatoes into the preheated oven and bake for 10 minutes; stir the tomatoes around gently. Bake for about 10 more minutes, or until the tomato skins start to shrivel and a few of the tomatoes burst.

Caution: When you open the oven door, you may get hit with hot steam. So keep your face away until the steam dissipates!

Remove the pan from oven and place the tomatoes and the juices from the tomatoes, if any, into a container for serving or storing in the refrigerator.  Scatter the thyme over the tomatoes; mix gently.

Serve and enjoy:

• With Egg White Puffs or Sauted Herbs for Breakfast (one more herb won’t hurt!).
• As a side dish with baked or sauted fish, chicken, or tofu.
• As a topping for a slice of whole grain garlic toast!

Enjoy and be healthy,

~Leni

Note to Readers: FROZEN BERRIES for green tea

Dear Reader,

I just want to let you know that I have found another great way to cool the temperature of boiling water quickly so as to make the perfect cup of delicious green tea:

Green Tea with Frozen Berries

• Place about 2 tablespoons (more or less, depending on the size of your cup/mug) of  frozen berries (blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, etc.) into your empty cup. Pour boiling water over the berries. Check the temperature. Add your tea bag when the temperature is right, etc.

Using frozen berries to instantly cool the boiling water saves time AND adds flavor to your green tea! And then when your tea is all gone, you have some delicious berries to eat! This is my favorite way to drink green tea these days.

And…if you like citrus flavor in your green tea, as mentioned in the post,  Monamifood Zesty Citrus Flavor Cube, you can cool the boiling water with a Citrus Flavor Cube too.

The suggestions for cooling the boiling water by adding frozen berries or Zesty Citrus Flavor Cubes, have now been added to the post, Green Tea (Part II), under the heading, “How to cool the boiling water quickly.”

And to learn everything you ever wanted to know about green tea  – why it’s good for you, where to buy it, how to make a great cup of green tea, and more, see Monamifood Green Tea (Part I) and Green Tea (Part II).

I hope you enjoy these time-saving and flavorful ways to make a great cup of green tea!

Enjoy and be healthy!

~Leni

Note to Readers: Fun food for the holidays – BISCOTTI

Note: The recipe for biscotti was published right after I had spent the good part of a day making one batch of biscotti  after another. What I didn’t realize when I wrote up this receipe was that I was very tired and made a few mistakes in writing up the recipe. I have corrected the mistakes – and I hope I did so before anyone started baking.  Sorry folks.

Well, this isn’t exactly a healthy anti-cancer food in the same way that spinach or Brussels sprouts are, but it’s the holidays after all. So, I asked myself: What cookie tastes great and doesn’t have a lot of fat in it? A biscotti!

And if we make the biscotti with whole wheat flour (and why not?) it’s better yet. So…here’s a recipe for a whole wheat biscotti with cherries. It’s delicious and impressive — and really quite easy to make!

I experimented a LOT with the recipe for Almond Chocolate Chip Biscotti found on one  my favorite recipe sites, 101 Cookbooks. And below is my version of this recipe — which uses less butter (replaces some of the fat with oil), uses cherries instead of chocolate chips, and makes twice the quantity of biscotti. And for chocolate lovers, I’ve included two more variations — a Chocolate Chip Biscotti as well as a Chocolate Chip Biscotti with Chocolate.

Biscotti

Biscotti – version 1: CHERRY ALMOND BISCOTTI

Ingredients

1 ½ cups dried tart pitted cherries

• I used Trader Joe’s Dried Pitted Tart Montmorency Cherries

1 ½ cups white whole wheat flour

• I used Trader Joe’s 100% White Whole Wheat Flour. It’s a lot less expensive than King Arthur’s.

2 ½  cups whole wheat pastry flour

• I used Bob’s Red Mill Organic Stone Ground Whole Wheat Pastry Flour which I found at Harris Teeter’s.

2/3 cup oat flour

• If you don’t have oat flour and don’t feel like running out to buy some, that’s OK. Just take plain rolled oats and put them into the work bowl of the food processor fitted with a metal blade and process until you have oat flour. That’s it!

2/3 cup raw wheat germ

• It’s best to use raw wheat germ as the biscotti are going to bake for quite some time and toasted wheat germ would get too toasted.
• Be sure to store the opened wheat germ in the refrigerator or freezer because the oils in the germ go rancid quite easily if stored at room temperature.

1 teaspoon salt (if sea salt, then use fine grain sea salt)

2 teaspoons baking powder

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

6 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons canola oil

1 ½ cup granulated sugar

4 large eggs

• I used eggs with omega-3’s

zest of one medium/large organic orange

• Next time I will use more zest. Maybe twice as much. You can’t taste it at all when you just use the zest of one orange. And, the zest is good for you and goes nicely with cherries, so why not use more?

1 teaspoon pure almond extract

• Use pure almond extract, not imitation. I used Penzeys Spices Pure Almond Extract.

½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

• Pure vanilla extract is very pricy. The extract preferred by many bakers is Nielson-Massey Pure Vanilla Extract. I didn’t have that. I used Costco’s Kirkland 100% Pure Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla. It’s OK.
• Vanilla extract helps to bring out the sweetness in a food, so, in general, when you add vanilla extract you can cut down on sugar a little.

2/3 cup chopped almonds

• To chop the almonds, I simply put whole raw almonds into the work bowl of the food processor fitted with a metal blade, and pulse it on and off. Caution: Processing the almonds in this way is very noisy; you might want to wear ear plugs!
• And you don’t have to use a food processor to chop the almonds, cutting them up by hand with a sharp chef’s knife works just fine too.

Ingredients shown above – but without all the explanation (better for printing)

1 ½ cups dried tart pitted cherries

1 ½ cups white whole wheat flour

2 ½  cups whole wheat pastry flour

2/3 cup oat flour

2/3 cup wheat germ

1 teaspoon salt (if sea salt, then use fine grain sea salt)

2 teaspoons baking powder

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

6 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons canola oil

1 ½ cup granulated sugar

4 large eggs

zest of one medium/large organic orange

1 teaspoon pure almond extract

½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2/3 cup chopped almonds

Directions

Please see the “Note” at the top of this page.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Plump the dried cherries: Put the dried cherries into a small bowl and add boiling water to just cover. Let stand for 5 minutes. Drain well. Place the cherries on a paper towel (preferably one that’s not bleached white) and blot them well but gently. Set the plumped cherries aside.

Into a medium bowl, place the whole wheat flour, whole wheat pastry flour, oat flour, wheat germ, salt, and baking powder. Use a whisk to mix these dry ingredients well. Set aside.

Put the butter, sugar, and oil into a large bowl or into the bowl of your mixer. Cream the butter, sugar, and oil  together for about a minute, until well mixed and slightly lighter in color than when you started. Add the eggs, zest, almond extract, and vanilla extract.  Mix until fully combined. (If using an electric mixer, you will need to scrape the sides down a few times.)

Add the reserved dry ingredients (flours etc) to the creamed mixture. Mix just until the dough becomes stiff and the flour is almost all incorporated. Add the slivered almonds and cherries and mix until they’re well distributed throughout the dough.

Powder the counter and your hands with a little whole wheat flour. Take the dough and divide it in two equal parts. Set one part aside.  Take the second piece of dough and divide it up into two equal pieces. (Now you have three pieces of dough — two that are each equal to one-quarter the original lump of dough and one that’s equal to half of the original lump of dough.) Roll each of the two quarters into a log that’s almost as long as your baking sheet.

Take a baking sheet and line it with parchment paper or a silicone baking sheet (100% food-grade silicone). Place the two logs of dough onto the parchment lined pan, keeping the logs a few inches apart and a few inches away from the sides of the pan. Now flatten the dough with the palm of your hand. Each log should end up being about 1/2-inch high.

• If you have two more baking sheets, you can bake the remaining half of the dough at the same time. Just place one baking sheet inside the other (makes it like an air-filled baking sheet) and line the top baking sheet with parchment paper. Make two more logs out of the remaining dough and place them on the parchment-lined double baking sheet. Place this double baking sheet on the bottom rack of the oven. The timing might be a little different if you do it this way; I haven’t tested it. But it should work fine.

• If you don’t have three baking sheets all together,  just make one batch of biscotti after the other, which is what I did. Important food safety note: The dough should not remain at room temperature for more than two hours, and just to be on the safe side, it’s best to put the reserved dough into the refrigerator while you bake the first batch.

• Alternatively, the experts say that you can let the dough rest overnight or up to two days in the refrigerator and then bake the biscotti another day (but before you try this, see the P.S. bullet point below). Why can’t you refrigerate your biscotti dough for longer – just like the Pillsbury dough?  That’s because unlike Pillsbury, you’re baking with eggs that have not been pasteurized.

• For reliable information on food storage, see NDSU’s Food Storage Guide.

• P.S. After refrigerating the dough, I found it to be pretty hard and crumbly. Not good. So I tried warming it up for on the counter for 30 minutes, and that didn’t help much. Next I tried putting it in the microwave on a low setting — lower than defrost — for a few minutes. This worked great; the dough was much less crumbly and easy much easier to roll out — almost as easy as it would have been had I not refrigerated it all.

Place the single baking pan with biscotti logs on the middle rung of the preheated oven and bake for 25 minutes. After this time, the dough should be firm and starting to brown just a little bit.

Remove the baking pan from the oven and lower the oven temperature to 300 degrees F.

Let the partially baked dough cool for about 10 minutes. (It was freezing outside on the day I made these biscotti, so I set the dough cool outside and so it took less than 10 minutes for it to cool.) When the dough has cooled but is still a little warm to the touch, carefully move the cooked dough to a cutting board and using a chef’s knife cut it into slices, about ½ – ¾ inch thick.

• Note: The best way I’ve found to make sure that the biscotti slices don’t break apart when you cut is to use a chef’s knife, rather than a serrated knife (which is what I used originally). Just hold the knife over where you want to make the cut and push straight down on the knife with your other hand. This works great! And, if you cut diagonally instead of straight across you will get the professional baker’s look for your finished product.

Place the partially-cooked biscotti slices, cut side up, on the parchment lined baking sheet, leaving a little space between each piece. Place the baking sheet with the biscotti pieces into the 300 degree oven and bake for 10 minutes, or until they’re starting to get a little more golden brown around the edges of the underside. Using tongs or two forks, turn the biscotti to the other side and bake again for about 10 minutes. You’ll know they’re done when they are very lightly golden brown on both sides.

Take the biscotti out of the oven and cool them on a wire rack.

When cool, store covered at room temperature. They’ll keep well for a few weeks – if they last that long.

Makes about 30 biscotti per baking sheet; 60 in all.

Biscotti – version 2: CHOCOLATE CHIP BISCOTTI

Use the ingredients and procedure given above but substitute bittersweet chocolate chips (60% cocoa – that’s the most cocoa I could find in chocolate chips) for the cherries.

Biscotti – version 3: CHCOLATE CHIP BISCOTTI WITH CHOCOLATE

If you want Chocolate Chip Biscotti that are ultra indulgent and chocolatey, just spread a little melted chocolate (from a 70% cocoa bittersweet chocolate baking bar) on the underside of each Chocolate Chip Biscotti. Set the biscotti with melted chocolate aside to dry and when the chocolate is dry and hard, it’s ready to eat!

Biscotti Tips

• If you think you’re going to make biscotti over and over again, here’s a time saving tip. Place the dry ingredients for each batch of biscotti (flours, wheat germ, salt, and baking powder) into a plastic bag and put the bag in the freezer. (It’s best to keep whole grains, and especially wheat germ, in the freezer to keep them from going rancid.) Then whenever you want to make biscotti, just pull out your homemade mix, let it come to room temperature, and then add the rest of the ingredients.
• If you have a good food scale, you can make several batches of biscotti baking mix easily and quickly – much faster than using measuring cups. Here’s how: First measure using the measuring cups and then place the pre-measured flour, for example, whole wheat flour, into a plastic container. Place the plastic container with the pre-measured flour onto the food scale and note the weight. This is the weight of whole wheat flour (plus plastic container) that you need for each batch of your biscotti mix.

Biscotti making video and one more recipe

Here’s a video from Eating Well magazine with a good biscotti recipe that uses mostly whole wheat flour and no butter at all.

And here’s the printed biscotti recipe from Eating Well:

Happy Holidays!

Enjoy and be healthy,

~Leni

NOTE TO READERS: New research re SOY

Good news for those of us who love soy foods! A new large scale study concludes: “soy safe for breast cancer survivors.”  More details are here.

Enjoy and be healthy,

~Leni

EGG WHITES: Egg White Puffs

Why egg whites?

Egg whites are a good source of protein and they’re fat free. (The fat and cholesterol in an egg are entirely in the yolk.) Because cooked egg whites are pretty tasteless, they need to be perked up with flavor, and that can come from healthy foods such as herbs, spices, and vegetables. So while egg whites, themselves, aren’t an anti-cancer food, the foods you make with egg whites can be great anti-cancer foods.

EGG WHITE PUFFS

I used to make scrambled eggs (mostly egg whites) in large batches in non-stick pans and refrigerate them so it was easy to have some eggs for breakfast for the next few days. But recently I have come up with a better idea — Egg White Puffs – which just take minutes to make in the microwave. Now I whip up a batch or two at a time and refrigerate what we don’t eat that day so these delicious puffs are ready for breakfast the next day.

Ingredients

Extra-virgin olive oil

1 cup of egg whites

• ½ of a 16-ounce carton of egg whites or the whites of about 6 eggs

Ground turmeric

• For information about turmeric and it’s anti-cancer properties,  see the post, Turmeric and Black Pepper.

Freshly ground black pepper

Aleppo pepper or any other hot or slightly hot dried pepper you like (optional)

• Penzeys is a good source for Aleppo pepper and all herbs and spices.

Directions

Grease a silicone mini-muffin pan with olive oil; set aside.

Whip air into the egg whites using one of the following methods (optional):

• Pour the egg whites into a 2-cup measuring cup. Use an immersion blender to whip the egg whites up so that they have an inch or so of foam on top.

• Pour the egg whites into a blender and blend until nice and foamy.

Note: Whipping the egg whites as described above does not change the taste, it just makes the puff puffier, and I like that, but not everyone does.

Pour an equal amount of egg whites (whipped or not whipped) into the prepared mini muffin pan. If you have whipped the egg whites, most of the froth will remain in the measuring cup or blender. Use a teaspoon to evenly divide the froth among the muffin cups.

Sprinkle a little turmeric, black pepper, and Aleppo pepper (optional) on each one of the egg whites in the muffin pan.

• Since I use turmeric a lot, I keep it in a jar with a shaker top (one that used to have cinnamon in it).

Put the filled muffin pan into the microwave oven and microwave on high for 2 minutes. You will see the egg whites puff up and then fall back somewhat.

• In my microwave oven (but maybe not in all microwave ovens) the egg whites on the outside cook completely in 2 minutes, but those in the center need another 30 seconds.

Use a teaspoon to lift each of the cooked (no longer runny) puffs out of the muffin pan.

If needed, put the muffin pan back into the microwave oven for 30 seconds to cook the last two or three puffs that need more time. Then use a teaspoon to remove the last couple of cooked puffs.

Serve your Egg White Puffs with Sauted Herb Flavor Cubes or  Sundried Tomato Flavor Cubes or both.  They’re absolutely delicious and so very healthy!

Enjoy and be healthy,

~Leni

NOTE TO READERS: Safety of Silicone Muffin Pans

Note to Readers: Is silicone bake ware safe to use?

I use silicon muffin pans a LOT. But how safe is it to use silicone muffin pans (bake ware)?

As far as I can see, heating or freezing foods in silicone bake ware that’s made of 100% FDA-approved food grade silicone is perfectly safe. Health Canada approves of silicone for cooking. And…even Dr. Andrew Weil, MD, is OK with using silicone.  In addition, I spoke with the chemist from Minnesota Rubber and Plastics, the company that manufactures the Silicone Solutions muffin pans that I have, and feel even more confident now that these products when used as directed (up to the maximum temperature for baking) are completely safe.

But I recommend that you buy a product that’s made with 100% FDA-approved food grade silicone. Unless the label states that the product is 100% food-grade silicone it may or may not be. But you can tell if the product is 100% silicone – just by doing the “twist test,” as recommended by Marion Burros of the New York Times.

When I tested of my silicone muffin pans, I was dismayed to learn that several of them (yes, I have quite a collection) failed the test (that is, they turned white at the crease where they were bent), which means they have some fillers in them (probably plastic fillers).

So do I plan to continue to use my non-100% silicone pans? Yes, but only for freezing foods that are not acidic (no orange or lemon juice) and not for heating foods. So I won’t be using these non-100% silicone pans for making a batch of Zesty Citrus Flavor Cubes or whipping up a batch of my Homemade Designer Chocolates. For those recipes, I plan to use only my 100% silicone pans.

While there are other 100% FDA-approved food-grade silicone muffin pans on the market, here are the links to the ones I found (and use) by Silicone Solutions, available online at Target (but not in my local Target store):

• Silicone Solutions 6-cup muffin pan (regular size muffins)

• Silicone Solutions mini-muffin pan

Notes re Silicone Solutions muffin pans:

• They  are made in the USA and they’re a lot less expensive than the imported ones that you can find at cooking specialty stores, like Sur La Table.

• They are thicker and less flexible than the muffin pans I have that aren’t 100% silicone, so I just let the frozen cubes sit for a minute or two to defrost before trying to pop them out of the muffin pan. It works just fine!

Enjoy and be healthy,

~Leni

VEGETABLES FOR BREAKFAST: Sauted Herb Flavor Cubes

Why vegetables for breakfast?

Just about everyone in the field of nutrition and cancer today agrees that the anticancer diet is composed primarily of vegetables, fruits, legumes, and whole grains. Specifically, we’re told that we should have 5-10 servings of fruits and vegetables a day (and, I would add that at least five of those servings should be veggies). What I’ve found is that if I don’t have veggies at breakfast, it’s hard to have had five servings of vegetables in a day. But if I have some veggies for breakfast, it’s easy to have five or even six servings of veggies a day. And…furthermore, if veggies are good for you, it just makes sense that it’s good to give your body a veggie “infusion” all through the day – not just at dinner.

With a little pre-planning, having veggies for breakfast is easy – and delicious!

SAUTED HERB FLAVOR CUBES

I got the idea for this recipe from the Persian (Iranian) Kookoo Sabzi, a wonderful egg and herb omelet. While my recipe doesn’t contain eggs, it goes very well with eggs…and that’s the idea.

Ingredients

1 bunch green onions (scallions)

1/2  bunch fresh dill

1 bunch fresh Italian (flat leaf) parsley

½ bunch fresh cilantro

1/2 teaspoon of turmeric, optional

• I have found that adding 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric (a potent anticancer spice) to this herb mixture doesn’t change the flavor, so I like to add the turmeric.

About 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Salt and freshly ground black or white pepper, to taste

Food prep tips for food safety

Here’s how to get rid of the visible dirt and the invisible bacteria that’s in the dirt, including E. coli:

• Use two cutting boards — one for cutting the unwashed herbs and the other for slicing and chopping the rinsed herbs.
• Use two knives (chef’s knives work best) — one for cutting the unwashed herbs and the other for slicing and cutting the rinsed herbs — or just rinse your knife after you cut the unwashed herbs.

• Green onion – steps to cleaning properly
  

1. Trim off the root end of each green onion.
2. Cut the green onion in two, separating the green and white parts.
3. Thinly slice the green part of the green onion on the diagonal so as to expose as much surface area as reasonably possible. You will see dirt you never knew was there!
4. Place the sliced green onion into a large strainer with small holes (a metal mesh one works well) and place the strainer inside the basket of a salad spinner.
5. Now you are ready to give your green onions a good rinse. Here’s how: Fill the salad spinner up with cold tap water and using your hands agitate the herbs in the water. Then lift out the mesh strainer with the herbs in it and pour the dirty water out of the salad spinner.
6. Rinse one or two more times and pour off the dirty water after each rinse.
7. Place the lid on the salad spinner and spin dry the herbs in the mesh strainer. Note: Since a metal strainer is slightly heavy, you have to be careful when you spin the salad spinner or it will go out of control. To avoid having to be careful, I simply do the spinning in the corner of the sink (using the two sides of the sink to help keep the basket in place).
8. Now you have very clean and decently dried off sliced green onions!
9. Slice the white part of the green onion thinly, but not on a diagonal; it’s not necessary. Place the sliced white part into the mesh strainer inside the basket of the salad spinner, and spin dry.

• Bunches of Herbs — dill, parsley and cilantro
  

1. With the herbs still tied together in a bunch, use your knife to cut off the thick stems — all in one cut.
2. Set the stems aside for another use such as making soup stock.
3. Untie the herbs and place them into the plastic strainer basket inside the salad spinner.  Rinse and dry the herbs as explained above.
4. Chop the clean herbs.

Directions

Thinly slice the white and green parts of the green onion, keeping the white and green parts separate; set aside.

Chop the dill, including the tender stems; set aside.

Chop the parsley, including the tender stems; set aside.

Chop the cilantro, including the tender stems; set aside

• Place the less tender stems from the dill, parsley and cilantro in a plastic bag (the kind for the freezer) and freeze. Later you can use these stems and other vegetables when making a veggie soup stock.

Use a large heavy-bottomed sauté pan and cover the bottom of the pan with a thin layer of olive oil. Heat the oil over medium heat (or just a little hotter) and when the oil is hot add the white parts of the green onion and sauté until softened. Then add the green parts of the green onion and sauté for 30 seconds. Add the turmeric, if using, and mix it in. Then add all of the chopped herbs and sauté for about a minute or two. When the herbs are gently wilted but still nice and green, remove the pan from the heat.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

Let this herb mixture cool and then scoop it up by the spoonful (an ice cream scoop or a cookie dough scoop works well) and put it into a silicon mini muffin pan (or an ice cube tray). Note: Press down on the herb mixture to compact it.

Freeze your green muffins (flavor “cubes”) until hard.

Remove the muffin pan from the freezer and let it warm up for a minute or so at room temperature. Then just pop your Sauted Herb Flavor Cubes out of the muffin pan and place them into a plastic bag suitable for the freezer. Keep frozen until ready to use. Then just take out one, two or more cubes and heat them in the microwave until defrosted and just hot enough to serve.

Many ways to use Sauted Herb Flavor Cubes

• Spread on toasted bread, including sourdough bread;
• Serve with scrambled eggs, egg whites or sauted tofu for great flavor and color.
• Mix with Sun-Dried Tomato Flavor Cubes and spread on toast or serve with eggs as suggested above;
• Mix into hummus or any bean spread/dip;
• Mix with a little goat cheese and spread on crackers or stuff into hollowed out cherry tomatoes;
• Garnish a butternut squash soup with these sauted herbs;
• Mix with green beans or peas for a gourmet touch.

Enjoy and be healthy,

~Leni

TOFU: Sauted Tofu

Why tofu?

Tofu (a soyfood) contains isoflavones (including genistein, daidzein, and glycitein) that “block the stimulation of cancer cells by sex hormones (such as estrogens and testosterone). They also intervene by blocking angiogenesis [formation of new blood vessels that nourish the cancer cells].”  (Anticancer by David Servan-Schreiber, page 122).

“However the protective action of soy against breast cancer has been formally demonstrated for women who have consumed it since adolescence. Its protective effect against cancer has not been proven when consumption begins in adulthood.” (Anticancer, page 103)

Since the publication of Anticancer in 2008, there has been new research on soy and breast cancer.  According to current research as summarized in Eating Well magazine (a reliable resource for the lay public), November/December 2009, page 37: “Studies are conflicting about the benefits of soyfood consumption later in life. Researchers hypothesize that in younger women, when the body’s estrogen levels are high, isoflavones in soy may compete with the body’s natural estrogen and reduce risk of breast cancer. After menopause, however, natural estrogen levels are much lower and so it’s thought that the isoflavones act like estrogen. Higher estrogen levels are linked with higher risk for breast cancer. That doesn’t mean that eating soyfoods like tofu and edamame – in moderation – after menopause is unsafe, says Zheng” (one of the authors of a recent study about soyfood consumption and breast cancer, published in April 2009 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition).  Furthermore, “’No data show that eating soyfoods increases breast-cancer risk in postmenopausal women.’” (Zheng)

So what do dietitians at the MD Anderson Center in Houston recommend? According to the Eating Well article, Sally Scroggs, M.S., R.D., says that “it’s best to eat soyfoods in moderation at any age – up to two servings daily, which is equivalent to ½ cup tofu or edamame and 1 cup soymilk.”

Note: The beneficial effects of soy relate to soyFOODs — not to soy supplements. “Concentrated extracts of isoflavones sold as dietary supplements for use during menopause have been suspected of promoting tumor growth and should be avoided.” (Anticancer, page 103).

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UPDATE: Safety of soy for breast cancer surviors

See Note to Readers: New Research Re Soy

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But what about “soy protein isolate” which is found in many foods, such as granola bars, energy bars, and protein bars, as well as in protein powders that are to be mixed with milk or juice? According to Wikipedia, “Soy protein isolate is a highly refined or purified form of soy protein with a minimum protein content of 90% on a moisture-free basis.” From what I can deduce from the data (USDA-Iowa State U Database on Isoflavone Content of Foods), soy protein isolate has an isoflavone content that’s about four times as high as that of tofu  – and that’s a lot. So to my mind, soy protein isolate is a concentrated extract – and not a food.

But how much soy protein isolate do you get in a “granola” bar? Or in a scoop of a protein powder? I don’t know; it’s hard to tell.  So to be on the safe side, I think it’s best to choose the bars that do not have this ingredient – though there are not many on the market or to choose those that have less protein and therefore should have less of this ingredient – and not to make a habit of reaching for one of these bars. And I avoid all protein powders — unless they are whey based.

And…for more information on soy isoflavones and nutrition, here’s a good site to keep tabs on: Micronutrient Center of the Linus Pauling Institute.

So now let’s talk tofu!

SAUTED TOFU

This is the easiest recipe ever. And you can make this tofu taste exactly like you want it by topping it with your favorite vegetable medley or sauce.

Ingredients

Tofu (not extra firm or silken, but all other varieties work just fine)

Olive oil

Directions

Cut the tofu into ½-inch slices.  Pat each slice dry with a paper towel (preferably one that’s not bleached white).

Non-stick pan directions

Cover the bottom of a non-stick pan with a thin layer of olive oil and heat over medium heat.

• The directions for use and care of all the non-stick skillets I’ve ever had say that medium heat is the hottest heat that’s good for the pan.

Place the tofu slices into the hot oil. When the underside of each piece is light brown, turn each piece over and continue to cook until the other underside is light brown.

Optional step: Remove the nicely browned tofu from the pan and place on a paper towel to soak up the extra oil.

Regular pan directions

To saute tofu in a regular pan, you can use higher heat, but you also need to use more oil. See this video for a nice short demonstration of sauteing tofu in a regular pan.

What to do with plain sauted tofu

Serve Sauted  Tofu with one or more toppings or sauces:

• Sun Dried Tomato Flavor Cubes (Just defrost and serve with the tofu.)
• Tomato Onion Chutney Flavor Cubes (Just defrost and serve with the tofu.)
• Any other vegetable toppings you like (I’ll be offering some more recipe ideas for toppings soon! And if you have some ideas, please add a comment with your suggestion.)

Enjoy and be healthy,

-Leni