Wow our second week! I would love for you to post pictures and recipes that  you have been making in my comments section. I hope that You are having fun adding a new recipe a day and if you are following Aveline’s recipes with me you are enjoying them as much as my family.

Week 2 recipes:

8-Basic miso soup

9-Clear soup

10-Red radishes with kuzu sauce

11-Boiled cabbage with sesame and ume sauce

12-Collard greens with tamari vinegar sauce

13- Dandelion greens and tempeh

14- Tofu  croquettes

Basic Miso Soup- by Aveline Kushi

1 3-inch piece dried wakame

1 Cup thinly sliced onions

1 Quart spring or filtered water

11/4-11/2 Tbsp miso

Chopped scallions, parsley,ginger or watercress for garnish

Rinse the wakame in cold water for 3-5 minutes and slice it into 1/2 inch pieces. Put wakame and onions in a pot and add water. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer for 10-20 minutes, or until tender. Reduce the heat to very low but not boiling or bubbling. Put the miso in a bowl or suribachi. Add 1/4 cup of the broth from the pot and puree until miso is completely dissolved  in the liquid. Add the pureed miso to the soup. Simmer for 3-5 minutes and serve. Garnish with scallions, parsley, ginger or watercress.

Buckwheat pancakes with strawberry kuzu sauce- by Aveline Kushi

Buckwheat flour in pancakes, waffles, and muffins is rich-tasting, light in texture, and very easy to digest. I am very fond of 100 % buckwheat pancakes, but most people prefer them combined with whole wheat.

Pancakes

1 Cup buckwheat flour

1 Cup whole wheat pastry flour

2 Tbsp light sesame oil

1 Cup amasake

1/4 tsp sea salt

Spring or filtered water

Combine the dry ingredients. Add the oil, amasake, and sea salt. (Amasake that has aged a few days and turned slightly sour is best). Add enough water to create the desired consistency for pancakes. Mix very well with a spoon or a whisk. Cover the batter with cheesecloth and let sit in a warm place overnight so that it begins to ferment. This will help the pancakes to rise and become lighter. In the morning, oil a pancake griddle or skillet lightly with light sesame oil. When the griddle is hot, spoon a small amount of batter to form a round cake. fry one side until small air bubbles start to form on the top side of the pancake. turn the pancake over and fry the other side until golden brown. Be careful not to cook over too high a heat or the pancakes will burn. Keep the pancakes warm in a slow oven until ready to serve with strawberry kuzu sauce below.

Strawberry kuzu sauce

3 Cups strawberries

3 Cups spring or filtered water

Pinch of sea salt

3-4 tbsp kuzu

Wash and hull the strawberries and slice them in half. Put the strawberries in the water and bring to a boil. reduce the heat to medium-low. Add the salt, cover, and simmer for 5-10 minutes, or until the strawberries are soft. Dilute the kuzu in a little cold water and add it to the strawberries. Stir constantly to avoid lumping. Simmer until thick, 3-5 minutes. Spoon over pancakes and serve hot.

Variations:

if the sauce is not sweet enough, a small amount of rice syrup or barley malt may be added. Other kinds of fresh fruit in season, such as apples, pears, cherries, peaches and blueberries, can be used instead of strawberries.  Dried fruit may be used , too, but it must be soaked, chopped, and cooked longer than fresh fruit. this batter may also be used to make waffles.

-I did have to add some rice syrup to the sauce, the strawberries were not that sweet.

- I didn’t have any amasake so I used a rice/soy blend instead

- Yes I burned some, not that it stopped the kids from eating them

Tomorrow I will be starting my spring cooking challenge.  If you don’t own Aveline Kushi’s book(The Complete Guide To macrobiotic Cooking) don’t fret, I will be posting all the recipes as well as photos and you can follow along. Or, pick your favorite cookbook  or Chef to follow. The point is adding new recipes to our daily repertoire.

As I look at my bookshelf I realize that I have many favorite cookbooks and admire many Chefs.  For instance Wendy Esko, Christina Pirello, Jessica Porter, Jack Bishop, Warren Wepman, Lima Ohsawa and Meredith McCarty to name a few.  For some reason when I travel I always end up finding room for “The Complete Guide To Macrobiotic Cooking ” by Aveline Kushi. I know that macrobiotic cooking has changed over the years,  There’s a little less salt a lot more variety, but my Father was healed from cancer by using the cookbooks of amazing women and their families  like Cornellia Aihara ,Lima Ohsawa, Aveline Kushi and Wendy Esko. Those are my roots . My comfort foods. So let’s begin!

This first week all  recipes will be using Grains.

1-Summer style fried Rice

2-Maki sushi

3-Arepas

4-Noodles and broth

5-Fried noodles

6-Seitan Kinpira

7-Buckwheat pancakes with strawberry kuzu sauce

Please post comments and photo’s of what you are cooking!

…”You wouldn’t try and drive an empty car to work would you? So why drive an empty body?”

Breakfast -  (Literally breaking a fast ). It is the meal eaten after a long period of sleep. Eaten mostly in the morning, it is the most important meal of the day. Without breakfast you simply will not run as smoothly. Lack of energy, poor concentration, overeating later in the day, weight gain, irritability etc.. are associated with not eating breakfast. What you eat for breakfast sets the tone for the rest
of your day.

Felix’s granola

6 Cups oatmeal

1/3 Cup brown sesame seeds

1/2 Cup almonds

1/3 cup pumpkin seeds

1 cup of puffed organic grain cereal

a pinch of sea salt

1/4 cup of good quality vegetable oil

1/3 cup rice syrup or maple syrup

1/2 cup of raisins

6 dried unsulfured apricots sliced thin

Heat oven to 350′

Stir together the oats,sesame seeds, almonds, pumpkin seeds and the sea salt. Mix in the wet ingredients and pour onto a cookie sheet(may take two sheets)  Bake in the oven until browned , stirring every five minutes. Pour into an large airtight container and mix in the raisins and apricots. Enjoy !

Poached Tofu

I like to jazz this breakfast up with lots of fun ingredients. For instance adding a shitake mushroom, slice of ginger ,daikon or a small piece of kombu to the cooking water adds a nice flavor.  When serving it can be really yummy to add a little dijon mustard to the bread, a miso-tahini spread, pesto etc.. Also some fresh greens, or onions. Below is the basic recipe.

2 Cups water

2 Tsp shoyu

1/2 lb tofu, cut into 4 slices

Bring water to a boil, add shoyu and tofu. Cook for 2-3 min. Drain tofu and serve as is or on toast.

Apricot rice cereal

1Cup cooked brown rice

1cup soy/rice milk ( we like Eden rice and soy)

2 cups water

5 dried unsulfured apricots, diced

Place all ingredients into a pot, place over medium heat and bring to a boil. Cover pot with a lid and place and turn heat to low. Simmer for 25-30 min or until the rice is soft and creamy.

Miso soup

There are many versions of this amazing soup. this one is a favorite with my kids.

4 Cups water

1 small onion cut into quarter moons

2 cups green peas

1/4 cup thinly sliced daikon

1-2 inch piece of wakame , soaked and diced

1 1/2 tbsp of barley miso

1/2 lb tofu , cut into tiny cubes (optional)

Bring water , wakame and onions to a boil, turn down heat and simmer for 20 min. Dilute miso in a small amount of hot broth and add to soup along with the peas(and tofu) and simmer until peas turn bright green. Serve

Other breakfast suggestions

-Steamed veggies

-Whole grain pancakes/waffles

-Mochi

-perogies

-Cornmeal

-Oatmeal

-Scrambled tofu

-Muffins