Are You a Flexitarian?
What’s cooking? Food creations and innovations.
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Greetings Foodies Who Don’t Like to Cook, but Do Love to Eat,
We’re smack dab in the middle of Hannukah and Christmas is around the corner. Traditionally, holiday foods emerge around this time. We tend to cave into sweet cravings, gain a little weight, and let it go until the new year. In that spirit, I’m sharing two cookie recipes this time around and counterbalancing them with a recipe for salmon salad. Yum!
My stepmom, Lil, sent us a couple of silicone mats about a week ago to use when cooking. I was skeptical, but they’re a dang dream. Easy to use, easy to clean foods that normally stick to pans and baking dishes like Pyrex, and they keep pans clean. Yes, please! The brand we’re using is Amazon Basics.
From trends in alternative sweeteners to mushroom jerky to rock candy, this column has a little bit of everything.
Happy cooking, eating, and reading. I’d love to hear if you’ve tried any of the recipes from 2020. How were they? Any modifications you’d recommend? Do you have a recipe you’d like to share? If so, email me at aimee @ gramblin dot com with Food Column in the subject line. I may feature one of your recipes, photos, or thoughts in a future column.
Happy Holidays! See you in the new year!
❤ Aimée
Food Trends
Flexitarians is a new word to me. Have you heard it? It’s in the dictionary and means a person who eats mainly vegetarian foods while occasionally consuming meat or fish. Moku is rolling out a mushroom beef jerky. Founder Matt Feldmen believes it will appeal to flexitarians.
“As I became older, I learned more about the immense carbon footprint caused by industrial factory farming, which led me to adopt a plant-based diet. I struggled to find an alternative to replace jerky, my go-to snack, that wasn’t filled with ingredients that sounded like they were made in a lab, so I set out to create my own.” — Matt Feldman, Moku Founder
Donna Berry writes in Food Business News consumers are wanting the same great taste with less sugar. I’m one of those consumers. I’m also open to alternative natural sugars or sweeteners. Be on the lookout for new sweetener ingredients on your labels. Allulose isn’t required to be in your food’s label sugar count.
“Allulose is found naturally in wheat, figs, raisins and jackfruit,” Mr. Douglass said. “[It comes] in powder, crystal and liquid forms for use in baked goods and snacks.”
“Another sugar alternative gaining bakers’ attention is isomaltooligosaccharide (IMO), which is a natural plant-based sweetener with 42% fewer calories than sugar. With high viscosity and high-heat tolerance, IMO is an effective binder, humectant and bulking agent.”
Recipe Roundup
Chocolate Walnut Cookies by Cooking at Home
The recipe is linked in the subheading above.
My daughter, Ceci, and I set our stopwatch and went to work on this lovely cookie recipe. It took us 32 minutes and 5.54 seconds from start to finish of the first batch. This is good time for me — I’m always a slow cook. Ceci definitely helped me stay on task and was a great chef.
We substituted 1 to 1 Bob’s Mill Gluten Free Flour for the flour and Carob powder for the cocoa powder, which resulted in a slightly different taste from the original recipe, I’m sure. These cookies are simple and quick to make. They’re attractive to serve with tea, coffee, or milk. I might enjoy a version without the cocoa or carob as well. Maybe I’ll try that next time.
They are subtle and on the dryer side — but, then they melt in your mouth. I’m a fan. I can think of a lot of variations to play around with, too. Add nut butter? Omit chocolate? Yeah, that sounds pretty good. I think it’s a wonderful base recipe. They have a nice cracked top fresh out of the oven. It’s important to let them cool for 15 minutes after cooking so they don’t crack or crumble.
Thank you for sharing this recipe, Cooking at Home!
Tip: Let cool completely before transferring so they have time to solidify.
3 Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies by Mary Younkin
Shanna Loga shared this recipe with me today. After making this recipe one time, true to the recipe creator’s word I can remember it without even looking it up.
Ingredients
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup peanut butter
- 1 egg
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Mix together the three ingredients. Mary suggests using a non-natural brand peanut butter. We had the natural brand, Jason’s, on hand, so that’s what I used.
- Mary said I’d have my batter mixed and rolled on my cookie sheet before the oven preheated. I’m slow…She was right. Roll the dough into about 1" balls and space them on a cookie sheet about an inch or two apart.
- Do the fork smash for the cute crisscross design.
- Bake for 12 minutes.
- Remove and let cool on a cooling rack.
Surprisingly, these cookies were a little too sweet for my taste. I did add a handful of Ghiradelli chocolate chips. Why not? You can play with this recipe and modify it to your heart’s content. I’ll probably try using one half a cup of gluten-free flour and one half a cup of sugar next time to see if it cuts down a bit on the sweetness for me.
Tip: Refrigerate your dough first so it’s less sticky for rolling.
A Healthy Holiday Snack
Salmon Salad on Toast
Salmon Salad
In a nod to tuna salad, Beth Pierce has crafted a tasty salmon salad. David, my husband, whipped this one together for lunch. He subbed a pouch of salmon to skip the cooking part. Although cooked salmon would be tastier, this was an easy, delicious treat. I spooned mine onto two pieces of toasted sourdough. Oh yeah!
Ingredients
- 1 1/4–1/2 lbs cooked salmon flaked
- 1 rib celery chopped
- 1/4 cup finely chopped red onion
- 1/3–1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh dill (loosely packed)
- 1/2 teaspoon marjoram
- 1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
Directions
- In a medium bowl combine salmon, celery, red onion, mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, lemon juice, dill, marjoram, paprika, and pepper. Stir gently to combine.
Tip: Try serving with grapes and a veggie tray for a festive, healthy food option.
Food Science
Hallmark’s Rock Candy Recipe
Did you ever eat rock candy as a child? I remember buying it as a treat at little old-fashioned shops along with Black Jack chewing gum. Hallmark has a recipe for making your own rock candy. Cooking is science…This is a fun recipe plus a science experiment. How fast will your sugar crystals grow?
Ingredients
- 1 cup water
- 3 cups white sugar
- Flavoring and coloring as desired
- 2-pint jars
- 2 clothespins
- 2 5-inch skewers
- Plain white sugar
Directions
- In a small saucepan bring the water to a boil.
- When it is bubbling, lower the heat and begin to stir in the sugar (1/2 cup at a time).
- When all the sugar is dissolved turn off the heat and allow it to cool for 15 minutes while you prepare the jars and skewers.
- Wet the skewers with water and then sprinkle plain sugar all around.
- Let this sugar dry and set while the solution cools.
- When the solution is ready, pour it into the empty jars.
- Pinch the skewers with clothespins and lower them into the jars, using the clothespins to keep them from touching the bottom.
- Wait for crystals to begin growing, anywhere from one to 10 days.
- When ready, remove the crystal from the solution and hang it to dry in an empty jar, then eat when ready!
