Non Dairy Creamy Sauce

 Ha!! I'm not giving you recipe oh. It's not mine to share. But excited that I did get one that got some critical acclaim.  First of all. Hi blog!! It's been a whole 8 years???? Holy shit!! Another whole human being has been added to the mix, so much info and perspectives to food have been gained.  Ermagad. Anywayssss. Here's a pic and some words. Until next time. Oh also we on IG

Had a cooking hang with Sabaa Zarena and learned how to make a dairy free creamy sauce that my kids did not reject.  I didn't taste it, but the way they gobbled this enh? Before this I had had 2 attempts at trying to make diary/gf free creamy pasta dishes and they were not cute. So yay for learning this! Thanks Sabaa.

2 things: (beware a ramble)

1. I'm bad at following recipes. I mostly look up recipes to see if a potentially absurd idea I have about what I'm thinking to cook already exists, so I can validate myself lol.  Or if I wanna make something I eat already but just never learned how to make. So I look up the recipe... and say ah OK... I see, and then just kinda take it from there. It's an adventure for me, you never know what you'll get.

This is why asides from cornbread, I do not bake.

2. I'm not a fan of alternatives to replace and represent something else. So asides from sweets/desserts. If I can't eat something,  I just find other things.

But #Orachi react to gluten & dairy, and do alternatives (nut milks, gf free flour/pancake mixes, and fake shredded cheeses). I just smh.
Their father on the other hand eats everything (asides from horseradish lol).

Me personally I cunhnt. I like to know what's inside my food (unless I'm just going in on some snacks and fast food then give me all the mystery), and I like my food life simple.

Also dairy and wheat is not really a basis for my upbringing anyway so I'm not stressed. I didn’t even start eating cheeses, yogurts, pastas, real butter that heavy until I met Skye, a European white American who's making cheese and pasta, cheeses and yogurts and whatever else everyday.

But after years of suffering from sinus and inflammatory issues, I realized that it was fucking with my whole system and so I'm back to the basics... trying to tap into more ancestral food as the foundation for my eating. While trying to navigate a multicultural household and life in the United states.

It can feel like a struggle tho. Trying to raise children in mainstream culture US is like all 'kid food' is literally wheat and cheese
Pizza
Mac/cheese
Grilled cheese
Pasta & Alfredo
Quesadillas
Hot Dog
Nuggets

Especially when they were younger and we were sleep deprived parents at a restaurant trying to figure out what/how to feed them before we all exploded into a land blast of irate hunger.

But ya... where I'm 'from kid food is also just food. So definitely offering a wide palette in this household... and also fufu and egusi is over here.

Food on the Farm: Scrambled Eggs, Polenta, Roasted Peppers

Throw back pic. LunaSea Farms, Nehalem, Oregon

Farm Fresh Summer

Kohlrabi
Garlic
Spring Onion
Zuchinni
Ginger
Carrots

.inspiration bulb on.

Clean out the Fridge Dinner

 That's right! Those days when you just gotta get rid of what is left in the fridge to make room for more.

>Pan-grilled Chicken
>Brown Rice
>Sauteed Collards cooked with apples to reduce bitterness
>Roasted Broccoli
>Sauteed Yellow Summer Squash

Sometimes it be like that!

Scrambled Eggs, Akamu & Summer Fruit Salad

>Egg Scramble with fresh tomatoes, spinach and onions
>Akamu/Pap/Ogi sweetened with maple syrup (no milk for me please)
>Fresh nectarines & berries


Nigerian Fusion. Yum!

Yesterday's Salad = Today's Lunch

>Fried Egg
>Whole wheat crispy toasted tortilla
>Salad from dinner



so. good. so easy.

Fall's Bounty from the Farmer's Market

As I anticipate summer...I remember this photo of produce that I got during the beginning of the Fall season.

For $45 Cold Hard cash: a table full of organic produce. Wow! You can't beat that (even for non-organic). We try to catch a farmer's market to shop for produce for the week or next 2. Last year I discovered the Chinatown/Downtown Oakland Farmers Market and it's so far my favorite. There is this feeling that folks there are just there to shop, so it's down to business as opposed to the sceney 'look at me be cool' feel that some other farmer's markets have (which I appreciate too on certain days). Here's what we bought:

(2) 20-count trays brown Eggs (we were hosting a brunch so we bought A LOT)
Multi-colored Carrots
Spring Onions
Red Onions
Pumpkin
Kabocha Squash
Butternut Squash
Yellow,Purple, Red & Green Bell Peppers
Zucchini
Yellow Summer Squash
Persimmons
Jujubees
Pomegranates( Fuyu & Hachiya)
Collard
Kale
Chard
Strawberries
Blackberries
Raspberries
Yellow Green Beans
Cucumber
Corn

I just love what fall has to offer. This motivates me to keep going Farmer's markets for better/fresher foods.

Tofu & Squash Soup, Salad

>Roasted Tofu Squares
>Squash chunk soup
>Pomegranate & Arugula Salad

If there's anything having this blog has achieved is getting me to make more soups. Which is kind of the purpose, right? I really disliked soups and don't ever make them, but now I have somewhat of a new-found appreciation for them. Yay me!

And squash- The produce that keeps on giving. These babies keep for MONNTHSSS. We have squashes that we got in October still holding us down in March, April, May... Whoa!

Ikea Food Lol: Fish, Brown Rice, Veggies & a Gravy

>Oven-grilled Fish
>Brown Rice & Gravy
>Steamed Veggies

Okay so it's not really ikea food, but those were yellow carrots I bought from the farmer's market, and once I made my plate, it looked like the freakish bright colored perfect veggies they have at ikea.

Beef Empanada Filling, Brown Rice, Broccoli Salad

>Beef with raisins, broccoli, onions and all kinds of other things
>Brown rice with a dot of tomato sauce
>Broccoli salad

I don't really like beef but my husband does, so we eat it sometimes.

He also makes some bomb cabbage rolls with a similar filling, so it's kinda a cool thing to make a bunch of and save. It freezes well too. So you can make all kinds of beef patties, rolls and casseroles.
Actually the best way to eat this particular meal is probably to just mix all the pieces of it together and go at it. Yea!

Oven-Grilled Chicken, Rosemary Mashed Potatoes, Brussel Sprouts, Salad

>Oven-Grilled Paprika Chicken
>Rosemary Mashed Potatoes
>Brussel Sprouts
>Broccoli & Lettuce Salad

I have been posting a lot of beef/red-meat lately and some not quite up to par with the 'grub a plate philosophy' so...I had to appease it with this plate.

Here is a a recipe I found online for cooking Brussel Sprouts for those who are not quite believers. I haven't followed this yet, but my hubby is all about claiming his superpower recipe (no meat added) to make brussel sprouts not taste like butt juice (okay that probably shouldn't be on a blog about food, but there it is). 

Grub on the Farm!

I found this photo of some food we made at an outside kitchen on a family/friend's farm in Oregon.

I really really really like to cook.

just saying.

Salmon Patties, Rice & Beans, Collards & Chard Salad

>Salmon Patties
>Rice & Beans
>Collards
>Chard Salad

I got the idea for Salmon Patties from this blog, and because I am extremely horrible at following recipes and 'ain't nobody got time for that' I did not actually follow it, but it served it's purpose and we all loved it, and I think I wanna make this all the time!

Like Babies for Broccoli

My (then) 7 month-old daughter has been really into broccoli these past few days. It's so easy because I can just have her sit in her high chair and she can feed herself from her plate. She also eats super spicy food, which is weird (I think), and sour things. I guess at this age, every sensation is extreme & new anyway, so spicy and sour are just as well. I bought from the Oakland's White Elephant sale one of these heavy baby plates, so it helps reduce (not totally eliminate) the slam-my-plate-and-splatter-everything-everywhere incidents. If she's into the food and wants to eat, it takes her a while before she can slam it all down and pour her food out. But usually if she's into the food, she wont play with the plate too much.

Other things that work well that I don't have to feed her myself and don't make too much of a mess
Roasted Seasoned Potatoes with skin off
Roasted Curry Cauliflower
Bean cakes
Steamed Greens
Fried Eggs
Squash/Sweet Potatoes
Banana & Blueberry Oatmeal Pancakes
Zucchini and Cheese (or no cheese Patties)
Really any patties of veggies you can cook, mush, season and combine and make, so it's soft but they can practice eating actual food by themselves.

Other things that make a mess...but oh well
Oatmeal cooked thick, so enough to pick up with fingers
Steamed Beets


It's cool to be exploring food with a new human!

Pan-Grilled Lamb, Corn on the Cob, Yellow Green Beans, Spring Mix

>Rosemary Lamb with sauteed Onions
>Corn on the Cob
>Steamed Yellow Green Beans
>Apple slices on mixed greens

I will never be the one responsible for cooking lamb, so don't even look this way. If I don't like beef, then I hate lamb. But the other half LOVES him some gamey heavy rare lamb meat stuff *shivers*

He did learn from a Family friend's Lebanese Cookbook about the good and bad fat. When you cut off the bad then it doesn't taste bad. Either way it's intense for me, and I can only eat small, and very well cooked in fact burnt pieces. And I need some plain veggies to help balance it all out.

Oh yeah shout out to Katy of Creekside Ranch in Esparto, CA. We went in with some friends and bought this lamb directly from them.