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Renata's Kitchen Newsletter

This week I will be posting my Vanilla Ice Cream Taste Test results!

Want to Pick Your Own Fruits and Vegetables? All You Need is a Little Inspiration!

      Want to Pick Your Own Fruits and Vegetables?

All You Need is a Little Inspiration!

Interview with Interior Designer Lisa Riva
www.lisariva.com
Click here for Houzz review of Lisa Riva Art + Interiors

Finding a sunny vegetable patch to pick your own harvest is just a Google search away. Here are a couple of links to get you started! I hope my interview with Interior Designer Lisa Riva inspires you to reap the rewards of picking your own fruit and vegetables, wherever you live. 

http://www.pickyourown.org/

http://www.localharvest.org/

Renata: Tell me about this beautiful harvest!

Lisa Riva: When my friend asked me if I could join her in harvesting her friend’s organic farm, I immediately got my old gym shoes on and drove over there as fast as I could.  It was exactly what my soul needed that day. 

Renata: What did you love about picking these beautiful vegetables?

Lisa Riva: Spending time with a friend, digging in the dirt, admiring the beauty of nature, it inspires me.

Renata: It sounds like it meant a lot to do this with a friend.

Lisa Riva: Definitely. My friend’s name is Lisa Zorilla.   She’s 100% Italian and her husband is 100% Columbian. Her father-in-law is adorable! The whole family helps tend the organic garden. My friend Lisa loooooves to cook, loooooves to eat.  It’s her passion, along with country music, and her family of course.  The organic farm belongs to their friend. 

Lisa's father-in-law, Oscar, can't be 'beet'!

Renata: This is old school, “everyone is family” farming!

Lisa Riva: We brought buckets, turned them upside down and sat on them in the dirt. We were talking and picking, talking and picking.  We talked about things we could cook, talked about life, and just solving the world’s problems! 

Renata: Sounds like the two of you really bonded.

Lisa Riva:  We both like to get dirty and get rewarded by not only what you get to eat from gardening, but also the way you feel when the sun shines on you and you are spending time in nature.

Get the dirt under your nails. 

Monday Menus from Renata's Kitchen

Monday Menus September 15-19

I bled money this weekend after the purchase of a new laptop.  This week's menu is my attempt to recoup some of my losses! 

Monday:       Leftovers! 

      Giordano’s Stuffed Pizza

      Whole Wheat linguine

      Roasted veggies and salad

Tuesday:       Lentil and Vegetable Soup 

      Bread rolls, bread ends and butter

Wednesday: Renata’s Frittata (eggs baked with remaining leftover veggies, cheeses)

      Jake’s Country Meats Uncured (free range) Bacon

Thursday:    Renata’s Marinara (frozen from weekend)  with De Cecco mezzi rigatoni, 

     Maria Martucci’s Kale Salad with leftover Jake’s Country Meats Bacon

Friday:      The Eating Well’s Daniel 1:8 Veggie Burgers

     Sweet Potato Tots 

Tightening the old belt usually means a  legume laden week. Not a lot of meat here for my carnivore pals, sorry.  I love organic, free range, and Amish meats, and they are just not in the budget after Apple took a bite out of me.  

This week’s menu is dedicated to everyone who is trying to save a buck.  

In fact, every menu I plan has this goal in mind. When I plan menus, I am surprised by how much money it saves me, and how much waste it prevents.  I scour fridge, freezer and cupboards before planning, and use the ends and remains to create five menus (even if I end up caving by Friday it helps).

Menu planning forces me to use up all those loose vegetables at the bottom of the drawer and throw them into a soup where their tired little cells will be welcomed by olive oil, onion, garlic, tomatoes, beans, whatever is in the cupboard, to give them new life.  

Soups are also a great way to camouflage anything my kids don’t like. Nobody will notice a portobello mushroom once I blitz it with the hand held immersion blender. (Immersion blender detaches for easy clean up too!  A blender works well too. ). A nice hunk of bread with butter is a great sponge to mop up all those nutrients and can really fill up a hungry teenage boy, too. 

Early last week I was feeling rich and bought a dozen organic, free range eggs.  I am going to spend that impulse purchase on a Renata Fritatta, which is also a great dish for throwing in leftover bits of veggies, different cheese hunks that have seen better days, and a few herbs from the flower pot give it new life. I think there are even a couple of red tomatoes I can throw in the oven with the eggs that have not frozen on the vine in my back garden, but I planted them too close to the house, and so I am embarrassed to admit I am not getting much yield this year. 

If I do make it to Friday without going to the grocery store, it will be a miracle!

Feeding the ADHD Brain in the Family

Feeding the ADHD Brain in the Family

With Links to ADHD Nutrition and Support Sites 

Toss cauliflower in olive oil, thyme, (parsley, tarragon, rosemary), garlic, salt and pepper, spread on baking sheet and roast at 375F for 35 min or until soft and gooey.

I'm not a professional chef, not a registered dietitian, and certainly am not a doctor or a nurse.

I do, however, have ADHD. And I love to write about my passion for food and healthy family meals.  

If you or your child have recently been diagnosed with ADHD, or you are just trying to figure out how to help in a supportive way, this blog is for you.  I certainly do NOT have all the answers. But I have done a fair bit of reading on the subject and have a few links I would like to share with you where you can explore your own trails, discover what clicks with your family, and find the best fit for your kitchen table meals. 

One of my favorite books on the subject of ADHD  is  Delivered From Distraction by Edward M. Hallowell, M.D., and John J. Ratey, M.D.. 

On the ADHD website  Additudemag.com, Dr Hallowell has some great suggestions on the power of nutrition including a link to the 10 foods, supplements, and herbs that I found very helpful.

 “Diet and nutrition play key roles in how well the ADD brain operates.” Toward that end, here are 10 foods, supplements, and herbs that you should add to your treatment plan. As always, talk with your doctor first before doing so." --from Attituedmag.com, full link below.

Follow the link to the full article on nutrition tips from Dr Hallowell: 

 http://www.additudemag.com/adhd/article/5774.html

Hallowell advises filling half the plate with vegetables/fruit, a quarter protein, a quarter carbohydrate (preferably rich in fiber like whole wheat pasta, whole grain bread, brown rice.) He also talks a lot about the power of protein which can stabilize blood sugar and help with the hyperactive element of ADHD.

I have always been a big vegetable pusher in our family and never stop trying to find ways to easily prepare tons of veggies for our family. One of the easiest ways for me to supply a LOT of vegetables at once is to roast them in olive oil and fresh herbs. I can load two trays at once into a 375F oven and most importantly, I  can WORK while they cook!If you work at home, roasting can be one of the biggest time savers in the world. 

I usually pop them in before a phone meeting, or before I write, and in 30 minutes or so, they are done.  Most veggies can be drizzled or tossed in olive oil, not too crowded on a large baking sheet, sprinkled with dried or fresh herbs, and roasted at 350F-375F with salt, pepper, and maybe garlic if you like. Roast until soft. It's that easy. Asparagus takes less than 30 minutes, usually about 20.  Just pierce and taste. When they are soft, they are done!

Omega 3-fatty acids are one of the hottest topics in the field of nutrition in all areas, including ADHD support.  I prefer to get what I can from wholefoods, but there are supplements you can buy.  I knew salmon was loaded with Omega 3-fatty acids, but I was surprised to see a lot of my favorite vegetarian foods and vegetables were also on this list on the website titled "The Worlds Healthiest Foods": 

Click here for link to Omega-3 Fatty Acids on http://www.whfoods.com/

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=nutrient&dbid=84

Here is another link to comprehensive list of  Omega-3 Fatty Acid Foods:

http://nutritiondata.self.com/foods-000140000000000000000-2.html?

One of the best places to start if you have ADHD, or if you think you or your child has ADHD (including LOTS of links to other helpful blogs)  is the support site: 

 http://www.chadd.org/

For Dr.  Hallowell's site click here: 

http://www.drhallowell.com/

For a good general start on ADHD nutrition tips, WEB MD has a good site with link to ADHD diets here:

http://www.webmd.com/add-adhd/guide/adhd-diets

Many people on ADHD medication suffer from loss of appetite due to the stimulant medication.  It can be difficult to eat when your tummy is so sore. I try to force myself to make critical choices in the morning, and will force myself to  have a complex carb with protein like high fiber cereal and yogurt, along with a piece of fruit if  I can tolerate it.  Sometimes I have to set a timer on my phone to remember to add a helping of protein at lunch, and this will often be a can of organic tuna from Wholefoods with sliced tomatoes or cucumbers.  

All of my recipes are posted almost daily on Renata's Kitchen on Facebook, and Renata's Kitchen Stories on my blog.  My website is currently under construction and I have a lot of wonderful people collaborating to deliver what I hope will be a soothing site to visit, relax and enjoy recipes and stories from the family kitchen table. 

Link to Renata's Kitchen on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/RenataStories?ref=hl

Link to Renata's Kitchen Stories Blog: 

http://renataskitchenstories.blogspot.com/

Wholefoods 365 albacore tuna, 1-2 T  WF organic mayo, 1/2 tsp dijon mustard, organic capers, mix with tomatoes, cucumbers, and if desired, heap onto pile of spinach leaves or into organic whole or gluten free bread.

Wild Salmon fillet drizzled with olive oil, tarragon, sea salt and pepper roasts at 350F for about 20 minutes or until opaque.  Serve with roasted cauliflower tossed with white beans, fresh tomatoes, garden herbs, a squeeze of lemon, salt and pepper. Serve with whole grain rice, whole wheat pasta, or potatoes roasted in their skins. 

Toss organic whole wheat shells with escarole, cauliflower and vegan sausage sauteed in garlic, shallot and olive oil.

Me (Renee Gough, a.k.a., Renata) and my youngest daughter, Olivia

I hope this blog has been somewhat useful.  I know I don't have all the answers, but I do like to contribute when I can, especially if I feel it can help a parent or a child.

I hope you come visit me at the links above for recipes, stories and more.

Email me any time at renataskitchen@gmail.com.

Guest Chef Maria Martucci Shares her Greek Goddess Wisdom about Kitchen, Kids and Kale

Kale Salad With Rosemary and Garlic Roasted Baby New Potatoes and Maple Bacon

by Guest Chef Maria Martucci

INGREDIENTS:

• beautiful batch of kale
• baby new potatoes
• best quality bacon
• EVOO
• zest and juice of fresh lemons
• salt, pepper, brown sugar

PREPARE:

Cut your baby new potatoes in half.

Drizzle with olive oil, salt, pepper, rosemary sprigs and a few garlic cloves. 

Roast at 400° till tender. 

Cook your bacon until very crisp and cut up in small pieces.

Clean kale and remove stem. 

The trick is to chop kale in bite size pieces.

To the chopped kale add salt, pepper, brown sugar, lemon zest, olive oil and fresh lemon juice. Massage the mixture into the kale and keep mixing until all the ingredients are developed.

Add potatoes and crispy bacon and enjoy.


STORY:

"I think it's so essential to start your children on the right foods when they are young," my Greek friend Maria Martucci shared with me when we bumped into one another in the library where we were each doing our own research about, what else, good food.


I told Maria about the reading I had done on the subject of organic food and the effects of pesticides in genetically modified organisms.  These days you have to be a scientist, economist, political activist, environmentalist, and nutritionist just to put a bowl of beans on the table. 

"Why do you think I became a food writer?" I told her.  "It's the only job I can do and still cook my family dinner."   
We laugh at our passion for cooking that comes from growing up with immigrant parents. 

Maria and I come from very similar backgrounds.  We both grew up inside our parents' family restaurants (hers Greek, mine Italian), neither of us ate much processed food at the family table growing up, and we are both somewhat obsessed with subtly brainwashing our kids about the nutritional benefits of vegetables and fruits. 

Brain washing? Is this what our 18 years in office has come to?  Well, why not?  The packaged food industry has been brainwashing our kids since they were able to watch cartoons. If we aren't the "good drug pushers", who will be?

"But there is a balance," I say as we exhale and step down off our organic fruit box to get real.

"Oh yeah," Maria agrees, "you can't go nuts or they're just gonna go to their friends' houses and hoard all the junk food there.  But at the same time, you can't just give them McDonalds every day and then suddenly hand them a plate of pink grapefruit and fresh mint salad with a balsamic glaze."

--Bbbbbzzzzzp!-- Wait, balsamic glaze?

I had to stop our dietary gabfest and jot down that glorious grapefruit glaze. Maria will have a guest chef spot when grapefruits come into season in November.  We returned to the topic after I glanced at her dinner photos on her IPhone.

"You have to sort of meet the kids somewhere in the middle.  Like this Kale Salad I made my boys.  I know they love bacon.  So I start there.  I built this dish around the bacon that I know they will eat."

The next thing you know, the kids are getting a taste for not just bacon, but the power house vegetable, kale. Maria massages the flavors right into the kale, and enhances the dish with her signature oven roasted garlic herb potatoes, and bejewels the salad with their beloved bacon. 

I have tasted Maria's food before. It is nothing short of a spoonful of lemony love, drizzled with Greek wisdom, and roasted with generations of family care.

Tomato Coconut Curry--Easily Adapts for Shrimp, Veggie or Chicken Lovers!

 Tomato Coconut Curry--Work Your Core Recipe to Easily Adapt for Veggie/Chicken/Shrimp Lovers 

Work Your Core...Recipe

Easy Core Basic Recipe with Endless Options for Different Preferences

Core tomato coconut curry shown here with cannellini bean/broccoli option.  Served on a bed of white rice or pile of sweet potato mash.

CORE INGREDIENTS:

• 5 cloves chopped garlic
• 5 T. Olive Oil
• 1 (28 oz) large can chopped tomatoes, or whole tomatoes that have been blitzed in blender, or squished by hand. 
• 1-2 T cumin or curry powder (cumin is wonderful on its own, or use curry powder which contain cumin and other spices depending on brand)
• 1 can coconut milk (regular or light--but light has more water so you may have to cook longer. Full disclosure--full fat tastes better, but light does have fewer calories.)
• 1/2 tsp or more of salt to taste

This items above make up your core recipe.  Whether or not you add chicken, shrimp, beans, veggies, or even all of the above is your choice to make.  Here are some of your options, followed by cooking instructions.

WORKING YOUR CORE OPTIONS:

• protein option: 1 can rinsed, drained beans of choice (i.e., cannelini beans, chick peas) OR 2-3 chopped chicken breasts OR 2 C raw shelled shrimp. 
• veggie option: 2+ large handfuls favorite chopped veggies (I used broccoli but cauliflower, string beans, zucchini would also be wonderful
• carb/starch option: serve on bed of cooked white, basmati, or brown rice, or Asian noodles. I served with choice of cooked white rice, and pile of sweet potato mash for my daughter who loves sweet potatoes with anything. 
• herb option: excellent with chopped cilantro or chopped Italian flat leaf parsley
• seasoning option: taste and add more cumin after 1 T.  If you have never tried cumin or curry, start with a little and taste at the end to see if you like more.  Also, if you are like me, you may want to experiment with all those little jars of Indian curry blends you see at the store.  I also like to occasionally blow my head off with a liberal dose of cayenne pepper.  But my kids wouldn't like that! 

In fact, you may want to reserve some of this stew with no cumin or spices, and give a sweet, creamy bowl over plain rice to your small children.  

COOK:

In a large pan, saute garlic in oil until fragrant, then add veggies/beans (vegan) or raw, chopped chicken breast until cooked. Add canned  tomatoes and cook for about 20-30 minutes until thick and rich.  Add 1 T. cumin, 1/2 tsp salt and taste.  Add more seasonings to your liking.  

*If you are adding shrimp, do so now, and cook a couple of minutes until shrimp is opaque.

Finally, add can of coconut milk, stir to combine,  and turn off heat.

Serve over bed of cooked white/brown/basmati rice, or a bed of sweet potato mash.  Top with freshly chopped cilantro for a heavenly aroma. 

I used beans and broccoli here but simple chicken or shrimp is delicious.

Added to a pile of sweet potato mash for my vegetarian daughter, Olivia.

STORY:

This is one of my favorite easy go-to dishes that never fails to impress.  I learned it from my friend in England who wowed us all at a dinner party by choosing to add only a party size portion of raw prawns (shrimp) at the end which cooked in a couple of minutes when they turned opaque. She served it all on a  bed of rice with chopped cilantro.  

The smell was incredible and everyone wanted the recipe.  My friend was embarrassed by how easy it was! Just cook the tomatoes, garlic, oil for 20-30 minutes, add cumin/salt to taste, raw prawns/shrimp until opaque, and swirled in a can of coconut milk at the end.   

The core heart of this dish is canned tomatoes, garlic, cumin and coconut milk.  What you choose to put in this curry is limited only by your imagination.  My friend served hers with shrimp and added no vegetables. As you may know, I am always trying to pump up the veggies.  But if you wanted a super simple dish, you could serve a heroic dinner by sticking with the core ingredients, then adding a bag of of raw shrimp, cook for a couple of  minutes until shrimp is opaque, then serving on a bed of cooked rice just like my British friend did.  

For tonight's dinner, I looked in my cupboards and fridge to see what I could use up.  Sometimes I have a week where feel overwhelmed by the bits and pieces of abundant food in my freezer, cupboards and pantry, and this is one of those weeks.  I therefore challenged myself to get through all week night meals on canned or boxed items, freezer items, leftover rice,  and wilting veggies that I need to rescue.  So I made tonight's meal with cannelini beans and broccoli, but you could easily replace this combination with chicken cubed and sauteed with the garlic, and any other colorful veggies you have to hand. 

I made the sweet potato mash for my vegetarian daughter who does not like rice.  Take two large sweet potatoes, pierce all over, microwave until soft (I pressed "potato" four times), slice open and scoop out insides, mash with a little butter and season with salt. (Butter/salt optional). 

Delicious simply mashed with a spoon and combined with a little butter and salt.

Microwave pierced sweet potatoes, then split and let cool a little before mashing.

Add beans, veggies, chicken, shrimp, or all of the above! Stir in coconut milk and cumin for heavenly curry with a powerful veggie twist.

Movies That Make Me Go Mmmmmmm

Movies That Make Me Go Mmmmmmm

What's your favorite film food feast?

A wiseguy in jail still knows how to cook a mean marinara.  Is that a basil plant to Paulie's right?

Impulsive? Me? Well, we are talking about a woman who moved to London with a man she knew for two months. 

My impulsive nature did more than just land me a husband and three British kids. It also causes me to cook constantly, impulsively, and it takes little more than watching Paulie in Goodfellas slicing garlic with a razor blade "so thin it liquefies in the pan" to cause me to leap off the sofa and whip up a batch of marinara.

Here are a few of my other favorite big screen slurp shots that really get my creative juices flowing.

• Moonstruck: I love the scene where Cher's mom is cooking "eggs in the hole", carefully cracking an egg into the hole of a slice of Italian bread that is sizzling in a cast iron skillet.  Every time I see that movie, I've gotta make that dish! 

• Something's Gotta Give (by Nancy Meyers): The food market scene and the dinner table are glorious.  But the food that gets me cooking is the scrambled eggs the two lovers eat out of the big stainless steel pan at the counter with two forks. Oh!  I'm a cheap date.  Two forks, an egg and candles please. I also absolutely MUST go to Le Grand Colbert in Paris for "the best roast chicken on earth". 

Le Grand Colbert...Renata's Kitchen Field Trip Anyone?

Kitchen from It's Complicated where the two lovers share scrambled eggs by candlelight from a pan

• It's Complicated (Also by Nancy Meyers): OK, there are so many food shots in this movie it is hard to choose.  It's not the Croque Monseur, the chocolate cake, the roast chicken, the three pies (apple, blueberry or plum!), or even the lavender honey ice cream Meryl Streep eats in the bathtub.  The dish I most salivate over is this potato/green bean/walnut pesto dish that she and the kids eat at the kitchen table when her guilty ex-husband sadly hits the road with no supper.  That's a cautionary tale, folks.  Don't tick off the greatest chef on earth! 

"The Bakery" that Meryl Streep's character owns.  Don't worry, she's still like us,and has to hold up her eyebrow when she's watching tv cuz it droops so much. 

• Goodfellas: When Paul Sorvino uses a razor blade to slice garlic so thin it "liquefies in the pan" I start rummaging through the drawers of  the house for loose razors, only to find one or two old pink Lady Bick shavers. These don't make great sauce. Besides, I'm a fan of leaving the garlic clove only densely smashed and sorta left whole.  It makes for a sweeter sauce.  But I really have always wondered if the garlic really DOES liquefy in the pan.  

So what's your favorite film feast?  Email me at renataskitchen@gmail.com or post to my Facebook page Renata's Kitchen!

 In the meantime, enjoy dinner and a movie tonight.  There is no better combination to soothe the weary senses!

Renata's Rib Fest is ON!

The vegan has left the building.
Renata's Rib Fest is ON!

 When ribs go on sale, snatch them up and I will show you this super easy recipe. 

 Lick, nibble, chew, suck, chomp, repeat. Slurp!

INGREDIENTS:

• 1-2 large packages of pork ribs
• 1-2 bottles or so of your favorite BBQ sauce (I use Weber now because it does not contain HFCS, but Sweet Baby Ray's was used in this photo)
• 1 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper

COOK:

Put raw ribs into large pot and fill water to just cover ribs.  

Sprinkle a teaspoon of garlic powder, a teaspoon of salt, a little pepper, turn on heat and simmer for an hour. 

Pull cooked ribs out of water and put into large roasting pan.  

Cover with your favorite BBQsauce (I use Weber which has no high fructose corn syrup but have used Sweet Baby Rays/Open Pit in the past).

Cook in the oven at 325F for about 90 minutes.  Move pan under broiler and broil on high for about 5-10 minutes until ribs look gooey, dark and finger licking sticky. 
Serve with or without utensils, depending on how you like to eat your ribs!

STORY:

My vegan goddess and first born baby flies the nest tomorrow to enroll at U of I. Once I am done shedding my tears, it's time to fill the void with a few of my favorite things that I have been putting on the back burner (literally in this case!) for a long time.  Yes, I realize most people would not think cooking meat was considered a hobby, but what can I say? I was born to cook!

SO! The next couple of months will follow with my return to the world of cooking more meat. Yes, I still have one vegetarian at home, my youngest daughter Olivia.  But she is so tiny that I can get her protein needs nicely met quite easily.  Then it is on to the meatfest for my son Lucas, my husband Peter and me!

Next week my friend is coming here to prepare smothered turkey wings for me.  It's all I can think of ever since we got off the phone.  In the meantime, I want to share this super easy  recipe for BBQ ribs.  Yes, you can certainly put them on the BBQ instead of the oven but I have never done it that way.  If you have, please let me know!  I love to learn new things and it takes a village to raise a great home chef.

Dedicated to my vegan goddess,  Sophie Gough, who I will dearly miss eating at the kitchen counter

How You Doin'? "Mezza-Mezza" Pasta

Mezza Mezza Pasta

Half Roasted Tomato/Half Butter and Cheese Mezzi Rigatoni Dinner

***click here for 1)  Recipe for Red 2) Second Recipe for Red

Recipe for White: 1/2 box DeCecco Mezzi Rigatoni cooked in heavily salted water, drain and mix with 4 T organic butter, 2 T grated Parmesan cheese

In Italian families if you ask someone "how you doin'?" you may hear the answer, "mezza-mezza".  This kinda means "so-so" in English, or, in other words, half good, half bad.  

Let's face it.  Most of us live in this mezza-mezza world by the time dinner rolls around.  Maybe that's why this dish is so popular with families.  Not only is the pasta shape half the size of regular rigatoni,  but we like to dish out half tomato sauce, half butter and cheese.

The nice thing about the smaller mezzi rigatoni, and making one batch of red, one of butter/cheese, is that you can mix and match quite nicely...even per bite!

This is our 'go to' dish in our house when we have friends over, or even if it's just our family. The red sauce is good for the vegan, the butter/cheese is good for the vegetarian and the rest of us, and we mix and match a little meat or bean/lentil dish for the meat/non-meat eaters. 

It's so fun to see who sticks with all red, who picks all white, and who mixes them to form a lovely creamy tomato sauce.  

When all of the different people come to the counter to load up their plates, most of the mouths go from "mezza-mezza" to "Mamma mia!"

You can't please all of the people all of the time, but you can please some of the people half of the time.  Huh?

Renata's Smashing Marinara (No chopping required!)

Renata's Smashing Marinara Sauce

No chopping, no mincing, no dicing

Some of my best recipes come from being frenzied, lazy, or in a hurry.  This recipe is smashing, I promise!

INGREDIENTS: 

• *One 28 ounce can Italian peeled plum tomatoes, blitzed very briefly in blender, with 1/4 can water, just to make it smooth (*I love Carmelina San Marzano Tomatoes in the yellow can)
• 4-5 T extra virgin olive oil (I call these 4-5 'glugs')
• 4-5 big, fat, juicy cloves garlic that you smash with the side of your biggest knife so it comes apart and is kinda squished apart, maybe it even falls apart a little...get your body weight on it and SMASH your day's stress on them!
• salt and pepper to taste (1 tsp salt for me, but  that may be too salty for you. Start with a little and taste at end to add more if you like)

COOK: 

In a large pan, throw your lovely smashed garlic cloves onto a beautiful pool of olive oil and turn your heat on to medium heat.  

When the garlic begins to smell gorgeous but not before it turns brown, add your blended tomatoes/water mixture, salt and pepper and stir to combine.  

Cook for 30 minutes on medium/medium-high heat until sauce is thick and luscious. That's it! This is one sweet sauce.  By not chopping the garlic, you get all the natural sugar and no bitterness from all the surface area being exposed. 

You will love this sweet, smashing, sensational sauce! Renata's go-to original. 

NOTES:  Remove garlic cloves afterward if you wish and discard.  Or mix them into the pasta and let people decide whether or not to pop them in their mouths!

*Open your can of tomatoes and carefully pour the whole kaboodle in the blender.  Pour away from you so you don't splatter your pretty shirt! (Oh yeah, or wear an apron, oops.) If you use Carmelina tomatoes they are quite thick, so add 1/4 can of water and swirl it around to get all that liquid gold off the sides of the can.  The extra water will give your beautiful tomatoes a chance to cook a little longer before they reduce all the natural sweet sugars out and won't become thick so soon.  

*I also like Muir Glen Organic tomatoes. ALWAYS get peeled whole tomatoes! Think about it. Chopped stuff has already had the surface area exposed. (Hey--is this a recipe or a geometry problem?) Demand only the whole story! Then blitz those babies yourself.  Mmmmm.

Sophie's Vegan Chocoluscious Chip Cookies

Sophie's Chocoluscious Chip Cookies

(..that the rest of us don't care are vegan)

Vegan? Really? Didn't notice. I was lulled into a chocolate coma. 

My daughter is a vegan baking genius. I have begged her to take her college fund and open up her own bakery but she wants to explore astrophysics and biology.  Go figure.  These cookies are from the mind of a choco-mad scientist. Enjoy!

• 2 C flour*
• 3/4 C sugar*
• 3/4 C brown sugar
• 1/4 C maple syrup* 
• 1/2 C fresh pressed virgin coconut oil (should be a solid)*
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 T ground flax seed whisked with 3T water (let stand 3 mins--you can buy the flax seed already ground)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 T soy milk* 
• 1 (12 oz)pkg Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate chips 
• 1 C walnuts (optional--and chop them up a little)

*Note--Sophie used organic ingredients marked with asterisk. They break the bank, but are truly worth the flavor. If you absolutely cannot afford organic virgin coconut oil, you can use vegan "butter" alternative or Crisco. (If you live in Elmhurst, you can borrow 1/2 C of ours!) If you cannot afford organic maple syrup, get ordinary maple syrup, but I wouldn't use regular pancake syrup. Email me with any questions at renataskitchen@gmail.com if you get into a bind with ingredients! I am always happy to take questions. Food is my life!

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Preheat oven to 350F and line your cookie sheets with parchment paper for best results

Directions:

In a large bowl first mix wet ingredients with a big ol' spoon.  Next, add dry ingredients and combine. Lastly, add chocolate chips and walnuts if using.

Drop spoonfuls onto cookie sheet lined with parchment paper (we have never tried them on greased cookie sheet, but you can try! Sophie has excellent results with parchment paper, the cookies turn out beautifully).

Bake at 350F 18-22 minutes or until all evenly baked, with centers about same color as outer edges.

 

Da vegan chef Sophie.

Vegan chocolate chip cookie and glass of almond milk.