Road food, simple, delicious no-cook low-carb breakfasts

Breakfast-on-the-road real time, in the camper van. That's my favorite flaxseed and ground almond cereal with fresh blueberries and raspberries and a handful of freeze-dried strawberries topped by a generous splash of hemp milk. PK chose the flax granola atop plain yogurt with berries. Recipes below. 

We're on the road for a couple weeks, traveling Highway 1 along California's spectacular coast,  and then perhaps heading to Death Valley to witness a predicted "super bloom".  It's so great to be back to ordinary life after my (our) involuntary descent into cancer hell.  I am grateful that the fearful episode appears to be closed, at least for now. Who knows what will happen tomorrow?

Our current  trip is a consolation prize for having had  to cancel an adventure to Ecuador due to my joining the Cancer Club in late December. 

You may know how it is when an ugly unexpected crisis prompts a  life reset. What's really important, and what can I let slide?  Do I really want to cook breakfasts on the road? Or even at home, except for special occasions? I decided before this little excursion that I prefer no-muss, no fuss, and turned to two tried and true on-the-move options. The breakfast treats featured here  are make-ahead treats that, consumed with berries, are delicious, and meet my new standards: they have health-promoting and cancer-defeating properties. Not at all like the corn flakes or cocoa puffs or bran pellets or other slurried-and-extruded-in-the factory breakfast shapes with added chemicals and vitamins that most of us gobbled in childhood.

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  Flax granola has been a favorite in ours house for at least a decade.  It's not low calorie but is definitely low-carb, and it tastes fabulous.  It isn't the kind of granola you pour into a bowl and eat like cereal. It's more like a topping for yogurt and fruit, and is also great atop a substantial smoothie. Not bad as a snack, either. 

Flax Granola - (sans oatmeal)

Adapted from Dana Carpender’s Every Calorie Counts cookbook 

This granola is high in fiber, protein, and healthy fat, but low in carbs. It is great with fruit and yogurt, sprinkled atop cottage cheese, or eaten alone as a crunchy snack. It has scads of ingredients, which require about 15 minutes to prep and assemble. Baking takes a couple hours. Store in the refrigerator or freezer.

Ingredients

2 cups ground flax seed meal 

1/2 cup oat bran

3/4 cup vanilla whey protein powder

1/2 c Splenda or other sweetener (I skip this)

1/2 cup sesame seeds

3/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

1 tsp, cinnamon

pinch of salt

1/2 cup coconut oil, melted 

1/3 cup real maple syrup (or sugar-free pancake syrup for lower-cal, lower-carb.) 

1/4 cup water

1 cup chopped pecans

3/4 cup sunflower seeds

1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts

1/2 cup pumpkin seeds, roasted (or not. Doesn’t seem to matter.)

1 cup sliced almonds
1 cup dried cranberries (add last, do not bake), Optional (dried cranberries add carbs)

Preheat oven to 250 Fahrenheit

Here's the first 10 or 11 (if using Splenda) ingredients baked into a crunchy
sheet to break into pieces and bake again with nuts and seeds, in the bowl.

Instructions

• In large bowl combine flax meal, oat bran, protein powder, Splenda, if using, sesame seeds, coconut, cinnamon, and salt. Mix well.
• Melt the coconut oil and stir together with the syrup and water. Pour this mixture over the stuff in the mixing bowl and combine until it’s evenly dampened.
• Spray a jelly roll pan with cooking spray or melted coconut oil, and turn the flax mixture into it. Press it into an even layer. Bake for an hour at 250 degrees F.
• Pull from oven, and after loosening with a spatula, break the mixture into bite-sized clumps. Then stir the nuts and seeds with the clumps. Return the whole thing to the oven  for another 60 minutes, stirring once or twice, It should be lightly browned. Remove from oven and cool. Store in a tightly lidded container in a cool place.

Flax and Almond Hot Cereal

From Dana Carpender's 500 Low-Carb Recipes 

Did you once love cooked oatmeal and cinnamon? Try this. It actually tastes better, and contains lots of protein and healthy fat. 

Ingredients

1 cup ground flaxseeds 

1 cup ground almonds (I use my Cuisinart. Any food processor will do. It's noisy but effective.)

1/2 cup oat bran

1 1/2 cups wheat bran

1/2 cup vanilla flavored whey protein powder (this adds a touch of sweetness as well as protein)

2 tsp cinnamon

Flaxseed meal is readily available for purchase. Ground almonds? Not so much, although almond flour seems ubiquitous. I grind whole almonds coarsely then roast at a low temperature (275) until fragrant and starting to get a tan, about 20 minutes. 

I usually double the recipe to save time later. The mix stays fresh refrigerated.

I LOVE this stuff.

Here it is, in all its simple glory: flaxseed meal, oat and wheat brans, whey protein powder, and, in the food processor, ground almonds ready to be roasted.

Directions

After grinding and roasting the almonds, mix all ingredients and store in a sealed container in the refrigerator.

To prepare -  see if you can handle this work load: 

Boil a cup of water, add as needed to 1/3 to 3/4 cup dry cereal mix. Wait a couple minutes to see if you want to add more hot water. Add your liquid of choice -  cream, almond, coconut or other "milks"  and berries sweetened, perhaps, with stevia, maple syrup or honey. 

NOTE:  Start your day on the road (or at home) with the simple breakfasts above, but think also about preparing easy camping (or everyday) dinners in advance. A post coming soon about what we carry in our tiny freezer that translates into quick and easy on-the-move dinners. And also! Something good from an e-ffing box!

Quick and Easy Low-carb Pizza

It makes me hungry to look at this. It required about 10 minutes to assemble and another 15 to bake.

Here's the key: Low-carb wraps or tortillas. These are available at most grocery stores in small-town Oregon, and they, or similar products, are likely  available anywhere in the USA and Canada. If you have a bit more time and an adventurous spirit, try cauliflower pizza crust. Unbelievably good! Zucchini pizza crust is also great, but requires more ingredients and a bit more prep time. Don Pancho ingredients include, in this order: water, whole wheat flour, oat fiber, wheat gluten, safflower oil, wheat bran, oat syrup solids, baking powder, and salts. No trans fat. 8 grams net carbs and 7 grams dietary fiber, 110 calories.

               My ancient pizza pan with holes makes all the difference  

          in producing a crispy crust. You can buy something similar here.
NOTE:DO NOT USE A PERFORATED PAN FOR CAULIFLOWER CRUST!

There is no set recipe for this quick meal. Assemble whatever ingredients you have on hand and get started. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Here's what I usually use:

• marinara sauce, reduced for a thicker spread
• pesto 
• chopped onions
• chopped peppers
• whatever leftover meat is on hand, usually no-nitrates cooked sausage, seasoned cooked hamburger, chicken, turkey
• kale, torn into pieces and microwaved on high until wilted, about 1 minute
• shredded Parmesan and/or other cheeses

Quality marina or pizza sauce is important.  This happens to be homemade from
last summer's tomatoes, but jarred commercial sauces are also good and can be
doctored for more flavor.

Spread pesto first, if using.

Add kale, spinach, or other cooked veggies. If using spinach
be sure to drain it well, squeezing out excess water.

Load it up with raw chopped veggies and meats. This one is topped with chopped raw onions and peppers, cooked kale, a bit of leftover sausage and turkey. I wait until after the pizza has been in the oven for about 10 minutes before applying cheese. Bake with cheese on top for another 5 - 7 minutes. The cheese should be well melted and the crust edges browned. Parmesan is always good, but I also use pre-grated cheeses straight out of the bag.

One pizza serves two along with a big green salad. Give it a try!

Cauliflower Crust Pizza (gotta try to believe. BUT do not use a perforated pan.)
Zucchini Crust for Pizza

Who Wants to be 100?

Note to email readers: Things look better if you click on the blog title to get to the website.

January 2, 2016
My mom would have turned 100 on January 1, and I miss her. I always thought she'd make it to the century mark, but she died in early September 2013, almost exactly six months from when I wrote this post in March of that year, after she'd relocated to a foster care home.  She entered hospice care soon thereafter. Stumbling upon it today brought back bittersweet memories of her final months, and even though it is old news.....maybe you can relate. Especially if you have a parent or two in their 80s or 90s. Or, if you are personally staring down those ages, and, given how we know that time runs at a hot pace, those years are not that far away.

March 2013
This week I'm moving my mom from assisted living to adult foster care. She'll get more one-on-one attention—exactly what she needs. She hates to be alone, and believe me, regardless of a manic and motivated activity director and kind caregivers in a facility occupied by 40-some residents, she has been most often alone. If not in her apartment, which she avoids, then sitting in the lobby or dining area, or navigating the long hallways in her wheelchair. Most evenings, I'm told, she yells for help, when all she really wants is company.

I'm glad that she knows how to ask for what she wants. No one wants to be lonely. No one deserves it. The loneliness of our elders is described in a heartbreaking song by John Prine. If you haven't heard it, please listen. I cry every single time, because I have seen those "ancient hollow eyes."

Since 2008 when PK and I moved her to Oregon from Minnesota, my mom has been a large part of my ordinary life,  and I visit four or five times a week. Still, I feel terribly guilty that she's yelling for help while I'm home just a mile away. Children of aging parents might relate. You love them, but you have a life.

Waiting. Endless waiting. She's waiting for me, mostly, as I am her only nearby family. But also for something to break the monotony. She can't read, watch TV, do the needlework she loved most of her life, play cards, or chat with other residents Her isolation, due to losing her sight and hearing is heartbreaking and haunts me. (It haunts me still, in 2016)

How has she lived so long? As doctors often remark, genes have a lot to do with longevity. Although her father died of appendicitis during kitchen-table surgery in 1920, her mother prevailed until age 98, even surviving surgery for a blocked colon at age 96. Her name was Dorothea, and what a trooper. I don't think anybody was more surprised at getting old. Gardner, painter, ceramicist, mother, wife, fisherwoman, clam digger, cook, poker player, thigh slapper, life lover. When she died at 98, it was a miserable process that began with a stroke that made it impossible for her to swallow. Let's not go there.

I'm approaching 70, inching closer to 90 as the previous decades recede into photos and memories. Amongst assisted living residents, I see surprise, sorrow, and resolve about the aging spiral. These people are old, but they're still present and wondering what the hell happened. They too were dancers, singers, artists, soldiers, cooks, circus performers, parents, grandparents, writers, investors, academics, recyclers, thinkers, lovers. They were lovers. Now they're survivors, some daring to peek around the corner at death and others refusing to accept reality. Some are diminished by dementia, which is, in a way, a protection. Who wants to be fully aware of the losses? Dementia blunts the hard truths and the sharp edges of hurt and need.

Back to my mom, LaVone. She has a greedy sweet tooth, and always has. But eating an outlandish amount of sugar hasn't drilled any holes in her life boat. So much for the sugar-free theory of longevity. In fact, except for being nearly blind, almost deaf, confined to a wheelchair, and suffering from extreme osteoporosis, she is the picture of health. She takes one mild prescription drug, low-dose aspirin and not much else. When caregivers attempt to give her prescribed anti-anxiety pills on nights that she calls out for help, she tosses them over her shoulder! Gotta love that spirit.

A year ago her young doc pronounced her sound, and noted that "her blood work looks better than mine." Ten years ago she had a panic attack and ended up having a cardiac workup. The cardiologist said she had the "heart of a 26-year-old." As of New Years Eve 2013, when she fell and spent five hours in the ER and had a battery of tests, all of which cost $5,000, (!!!!), everything still looks good.

Except, of course, for the vision, hearing, and mobility, which constitute quality of life. But vision, hearing, and mobility are unnecessary, apparently, for living to 100+, which I predict she will achieve. Dementia? She's been diagnosed as "mild."

She is 98 years and 3 months old. What's with the months? She told me around the time she turned 90 that the ninth decade is like the first, except rather than reaching achievement milestones, she'll be in reverse. Losing ground rather than gaining.

Well, she didn't say "achievement milestones." But her meaning was clear, and she was correct. We all know this happens, but seeing a parent age at warp speed is horrible. Well, hello. Seeing your very own self age at what seems to be warp speed is also a delicate topic. Isn't it?

My sister, Monette, on the right, with her son Micheal, and daughter, Lisa. That's

me with the lavender shirt. My father and mother share a headstone at Fort Snelling,

a military cemetery in Minneapolis.  We visited their graves in June 2015.

Looking back at the photos and words about my mom's life in Oregon, which she began at age 92, I see the bigger picture and remember all the good times she had, especially the first few years. After age 96, not so much. Several months before she died, she told me she was "ready to go, any time."
I have not written yet about my wonderful father, Floyd Strube, who died at 93, from kidney failure? We're not sure. One day he was on hospice care. The next day, he was gone. My mother always thought they killed him with morphine at the nursing home where he spent his final weeks. The last time I saw him, on a visit to Minnesota from Oregon, he complained of severe shoulder pain. He couldn't walk. He could barely chew food, as his dental appliances no longer fit. But one of the last things I heard him say? I want to go home. He did go home. If there's a heaven, he's there.

Other posts about time passing:
Time is too long for those who wait....
Happier times at age 93
The end of life...
But let's not forget about Pauline! Is 90 the new 70?

Best Damn Salsa!

Revised September 23, 2017

Here's PK a few years back with a great pepper harvest. For salsa, we use the mixed color sweet peppers on the right combined with lots of the red hot peppers. 

I'm on a roll here with recipies to use up gargantuan garden harvests Here's one for a great salsa. If you don't have a garden bordering on obscene, then head to the nearest farmers' market. You can halve the recipe to make about 8 pints. Otherwise, clear your shelves for 16 - 17 pints.

Just out of the canning pot, 2015's salsa. I love the brilliant color and the crisp pops of sealing jars and the promise of easy tangy salsa throughout  the winter. 

Roma-type tomatoes are best for making canned salsa.

We have a half dozen salsa recipes in our canning binder, but this is the one that keeps stocking our pantry, year after year. We've tweaked it many times. It's hot, but not too hot. Sweet, but not too sweet. We've named it after the people who passed it along, Jack and Lois Harris. With numerous refinements over the years we call it:

Jack and Lois Salsa Suprema
Ingredients
16 cups cored and diced  Roma-type tomatoes (you can remove skins first by dipping tomatoes in boiling water, letting them cool and slipping off the skins. We no longer bother doing this.)
3-4 cups chopped green peppers (8-12 medium peppers)
8 cups chopped onions, not sweet
8 jalapeno peppers, seeded and chopped. A few habaneros and other peppers may be added to spice it up
11/2 cups tomato paste (2 small cans)
15 oz can tomato soup (no water)
2 cans whole kernel corn, drained
1 or 2 can black beans, rinsed and drained (we use 1 can)
6 T garlic chili sauce
6 T serrano sauce (or Sriracha sauce)
1.5 cups white vinegar
4 T sugar
4 T salt
8 tsp garlic powder
2 T cayenne pepper

Note: This recipe requires two large soup-type pots. Measure the ingredients and divide between the pots. After simmering for an hour or more, you will be able to combine the two batches for canning.

Directions
Rinse the tomatoes, remove core, cut into large chunks and drain in a colander for a few minutes. Pulse the tomatoes in a food processor or blender until roughly chopped, then dump into your two pots.  Divide and add the other ingredients.

Cook uncovered for 45 minutes to an hour, stirring frequently. Can in a water bath canner for 15 minutes, timing after water reaches a rolling boil. Or use a pressure cooker, which is what we do.
With a pressure cooker, you can stack the pints and get it all done in one batch. Follow the directions provided for your pressure cooker. (After venting steam for 10 minutes after the pressure gauge pops up, place the weight over the steam vent and process until the pressure comes up to 10. Turn off heat and leave it alone until the pressure gauge falls down.)

Seventeen pints came from this recipe. Yowsers! Lots of work, lots of love. Lots of chips.

Other great ways to use the harvest

Rich, thick homemade marinara sauce

Eggplant Parmesan with Low-Carb notes

Ratatouille with Rosemary

Rosemary Ratatouille, Roasted not Fried

            Roasted ratatouille requires less toil than frying each ingredient separately. 

I wrote this post in 2009 when the idea of cutting way back on gardening had not yet occurred to me.(It was updated in 2015 and again today.) Those were the days! Now I'm in the throes of weaning myself away from a prodigious garden. I'll miss this ratatouille. But I hear they sell eggplant at growers' markets?

Ratatouille is one of the best possible ways for turning a garden bonanza into flavorful freezable gold bricks to mine during the bleak winter. In August and September, we have so much garden glory that I have actually chased people down the road, waving zucchini and cucumbers. I leave produce in the mailbox for our rural mail carrier, and deliver cukes and zukes to the community center's "free food" area. Someone came to buy a vacuum I advertised on Craigs List, and she went home with tomatoes, cucumbers, and a spaghetti squash. Anyway. ratatouille is a wonderful way to use up a lot of summer produce all at once. 

About Rosemary Ratatouille

Rosemary isn't a huge ingredient in this recipe, but the fact that it's there to the exclusion of all other herbs is key. Ratatouille has been a favorite way to use summer bounty for years, but I usually included handfuls of fresh basil and sprigs of oregano and never even considered rosemary. I also fried each ingredient in separate batches to develop individual flavors, then combined to blend. Big pain in the arse!

But a recipe I discovered in 2009 at recipetips.com makes the BEST ratatouille ever. I would link to the recipe, but it no longer exists at that site, or at least I couldn't find it. This recipe is a lot less work than frying, and high temp roasting boosts the flavors. The four teaspoons of chopped fresh rosemary are key to the deliciousness of this heavenly dish.

This recipe requires 15-20 minutes of prep and 45 minutes to 65 or 70 minutes of roasting time, depending upon the pan size and the volume of vegetables. You'll need two large rimmed baking sheets or shallow roasting or broiling pans, and parchment paper to make clean-up easier.

Rosemary Ratatouille, Roasted 

Ingredients
2-3 large eggplants, 1-11/2 pounds
2 sweet red peppers
2 yellow peppers
3 small/medium zucchini
2 medium/large onions (not sweet onions)
4-6 cloves garlic
6-8 tablespoons olive oil, or more
4 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary
6-8 large tomatoes, more if small
kosher, sea, or smoked salt to taste (smoked salt is divine!)

Directions
Preheat oven to 400
Cut eggplant, peppers, squash, and onion into roughly 1 inch chunks. Peel garlic and slice lengthwise 3 or 4 times. Combine and toss with 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil and the chopped rosemary. Salt lightly. Oil a rimmed baking sheet or other large shallow pan and spread the vegetables into a single layer and place in preheated oven. If you have too many for a single layer, don't sweat it. After they've roasted for 20-25 minutes you should be able to spread them out.

Line the second rimmed pan with parchment paper making sure that the paper is larger than the pan. You don't want the juices to get underneath the paper. Cut tomatoes into halves or quarters depending on size and arrange them in a single layer. Drizzle with olive oil and salt lightly. Put in preheated oven.

Roast vegetables, turning with a spatula once or twice.

Tomatoes don't need to be turned, and they roast faster than the other veggies. When roasted, they should be soft enough so they go flat when pressed lightly. The juices may brown, and that's good. If you put tomatoes and the other veggies into the oven at the same time, the tomatoes will be ready as  much as a half hour before earlier than the veggie mixture.

This is an extra-large load  for a double recipe and required about 90 minutes of roasting at 400.  

Remove veggies when roasted. You'll know they're roasted when they're beginning to brown and are soft.

These tomatoes could have  roasted another 5-10 minutes. This batch made a good puddle of juice, which when mixed with the brown bits, was added to the other veggies.

Let the tomatoes cool. Turn each tomato half or quarter over and pinch the skin; it will come right off.  Place the pan with the roasted veggies next to the tomatoes. Carefully lift the parchment paper and pool juices and tomatoes in the center, then slide it all into the  roasted veggies to mix. Alternatively, you could use a spatula to transfer the tomatoes then pour the juices. Mix thoroughly. May be served hot, warm or room temperature.

Ratatouille freezes beautifully and is a wonderful reminder of benevolent summer during winter's churlish days.

Other ways to use the harvest

Rich, thick homemade marinara sauce

Eggplant Parmesan with Low-Carb notes

Vacation weight gain? Zucchini etc to the rescue

Today's take from our two zucchini plants, which have suddenly roared into high production. I grated most of a medium zucchini then nuked the "noodles" for a minute and a half.

PK and I returned last week from a month away. We biked. We hiked. We danced to the Rolling Stones. We ate too much, or at least I ate too much. We sat on our butts for nearly 5,000 miles of travel to the Midwest and back, via Canada. Great trip. But. Butt. 

I gained five pounds. PK doesn't seem any fatter. Still a skinny SOB. But me? The enlarged rolls around the middle are insidious, hideous, entirely ridicuilious. (re-dick-u-ill- e-us). And also bilious.

I've developed a self-defeating habit for one who is privileged to travel. I relax my low-carbish diet on vacations as I relax everything else. Sometimes that's OK,  such as when we're dependent upon others for sustenance or when the sustenance supplied is not commensurate with what my overfed body expects. Hence when we returned from Africa in 2013, I had lost a few pounds.

But on this trip we were self-medicated with food and well treated by all the hosts who went out of their way to please us. Great stuff! Sandwiches every day, potato salad, pasta salad, desserts! And now ..... overstuffed, as witness the pants that won't zip. 

After this morning's weigh-in and a scary look at my belly during down dog at yoga, I determined to rev up a carb-correction plan that includes substituting zucchini, cauliflower, green beans and other veggies for rice, pasta, potatoes, bread and other delicious items that make a person gain weight not just because they're caloric, but also because refined carbs produce blood sugar spikes that lead to appetite spikes that lead to driving spikes into the heart. (Spikes in heart—for desperate cases only.)

Zucchini is going bonkers in the garden and so.....

ZUCCHINI NOODLES

Two servings. Select a fresh medium or medium-large zucchini, preferably one in which seeds have not yet formed. Seeds make for weak noodles.

Grate into longish strands using a box grater or a food processor. 

Microwave in a covered glass bowl on high for a minute. Check after a minute to see if the noodles need another 30 seconds or so. They should be hot and limp, but not slimy or falling apart. You want them to hold together for whatever sauce you'll douse them with. They're great with a bit of crunch left.

The short story here: it is easy to make zucchini "noodles" using a box grater, or a food processor or a mandolin.

Microwaved zucchini noodles should be well drained before dressing with sauces. 

My virtuous lunch comprising reheated marinara meat sauce topped with zuke noodles, shredded Parmesan, and fresh basil.

Farm Fresh Kale and Strawberry Salad

Tina Arapolu co-owner of Easy Valley (organic) Farm in Southern Oregon, helps produce tons of veggies just a couple miles from where I live. I asked her to show me where she grows kale.  Wow! The hoop house was rockin' with vitamin vibes from all that kick-ass kale. Maybe you don't get as excited about kale as I do? It is an acquired obsession.

PK and I enjoyed yet another potluck party last weekend, prompting me to fiddle around making one more raw kale salad. When a pot-lucker  told me that it was the first kale dish she'd ever liked ,and she couldn't even taste the kale, and a few more asked for the recipe, I figured it was worth a yet another kale recipe post. This will be the eleventh! (Scroll down for links to earlier recipes.)


But this one is really good. It's all about using super fresh ingredients and a homemade strawberry vinaigrette dressing.  I think the dressing would make cardboard palatable.

One bunch of just-picked lacinato kale is $2.50 at Tina's

make-your-own change farm stand. I prefer this variety for salads. And

I love the country feel of the on-your-honor sales approach.

Local berries, one mile away, are the BEST! Our berry
crop failed this year so I frequent the strawberry stand. 

Let's get to the dang recipe! This is a non commercial blog and lacks a "print" button, but you can do it the old-fashioned way: select and copy the recipe to a word processing program.

Kale Salad with Strawberry Vinaigrette

6-8 servings

1 bunch of farm-fresh kale, de-ribbed and chopped
1/2 head (small-medium) organic cabbage, chopped
1 small-medium sweet spring onion with some greens, sliced
1 handful of arugula, chopped (optional, I just happened to have some)
1/4 to  1/3 cup dried cranberries (dried cranberries have a lot of sugar. They taste great in the salad, but leave out if you're diabetic or avoiding carbs.)
1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese 
1/3 cup roasted salted pumpkin seeds (or slivered almonds, roasted pecans or another roasted seed or nut)
1 pint fresh strawberries, sliced

Directions
Chop the kale, cabbage and arugula, if using. Add the white parts of the sliced onion and the cranberries. Mix in a salad bowl and cover, or store in a plastic bag and refrigerate, if making several hours in advance.

An hour or so before serving, assemble the mixed kale, cabbage, arugula, cranberries and onion and toss with dressing in a salad bowl. Start with 4 tablespoons of dressing and add more as necessary.

Let it marinate. refrigerated for at least a half hour. Before serving, sprinkle the feta cheese on top, followed by the nuts or seeds, then the sliced strawberries.  Sprinkle with the sliced green onion tops, or substitute chives. 

Strawberry Vinaigrette Salad Dressing

I reviewed a dozen or so recipes and finally came up with this, which turned out great. 

1/2 cup strawberry vinegar*
3/4 cup oil. I used half avocado oil and half olive oil
3 tablespoons honey, or to taste. This yields a light to moderately sweet dressing. Low-carbers can choose Splenda, stevia or other low-carb sweeteners. 
1 teaspoon celery seed
1/2 teaspoon dried mustard

Directions
Use a wire whisk or a food processor to blend ingredients. The oil may separate, so shake or stir before dressing the salad.

*Strawberry Vinegar

This recipe is adapted from Epicurious. It is the essential ingredient in strawberry vinaigrette dressing. It is incredibly fresh and strawberry-tasting.

Make it a couple hours, or even a day ahead. Don't freak out! It's easy! You can use this fruity vinegar for a week or so, according to Epicurious. I tripled the recipe because I was making salad for 36 people. One recipe would have been plenty! The ingredients below make about two cups of vinegar. Adjust accordingly.

1 pound strawberries, trimmed (3 cups)
2 tablespoons sugar (or low-carb sweetener)
2 cups white balsamic vinegar, or, as adapted by me who lacks access to white balsamic, 1 cup unseasoned rice vinegar and 1 cup balsamic

Directions
Using a food processor, pulse berries with sugar until finely chopped and juicy. Lacking a food processor? Try a potato masher. Transfer to a bowl and add vinegar. Stir. Let stand one hour or more. Strain vinegar through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl. This can take 30 minutes or more. Discard solids. Refrigerate, covered, in a glass jar. Stays fresh tasting for about a week. 

Why bother eating kale? 

Here are the Top Ten Health Benefits. 

Curly kale. Great for kale "chips", soups, frittatas etc. 

Lacinato kale, AKA  dinosaur or Tuscan. Mild.

Siberian kale, mild and also good for chopped salads.

More kale recipes from Ordinary Life

Kale chips!
Asian Mexican Fusion Kale Salad
Creamed kale with dried tomatoes
Kale and Yoga Eggs Fritatta
Killer Kale Salad with Sesame Dressing
Savory Eggs, Kale, Prosciutto Breakfast
Kick Butt Kale Soup
Key to a Happy Marriage (includes kale!)
Spring Smoothie
Quinoa Kale Salad

Spring Salad - Asparagus, Avocado, Kale  and Cabbage
The potluck party that inspired this recipe. (spring salad)

Garden Greens and Ham and Cheese. Jeez! Low carb, too.

HEAL!!! And it will, after a month of neglect as we traveled. And, of course, it was winter. All things considered, the garden is doing fine after our absence. Yes indeed. Feed us, please. The is the first winter/spring  in a long time that we haven't relied on a cold frame. Cold frames bring on the greens earlier and in greater amounts. We knew we'd be gone during prime harvest, so didn't bother to put the heavy frame in place. Maybe next year.

Sweet little harvest of lettuce, winter spinach, garlic chives, kale flowers, kale, asparagus etc. Make you hungry for a dinner salad? Me too.

This is how our main garden looked today.

This is how it looks in mid-season,  mid-July. But even the tiny piece of productive land currently producing supplies us with greens several  times a week. Most years we use a cold frame, which allows way greater production than open-air planting. The message: no matter where you live, with protection and sun exposure, you can grow spinach, lettuce, kale, etc. etc. during late winter and spring. In most climates. Those same crops do not do well in summer, as heat makes them bolt and get bitter and ask, Why don't you  just grow tomatoes?

The message: no matter where you live, with frost protection and southern sun exposure, you can grow spinach, lettuce, kale, etc. etc. during winter and spring. In most climates. 

To make a dinner salad, chop kale, cabbage, chives, broccoli, etc. That cabbage? Gotta confess. Green Giant. They have apparently dropped "jolly" from the name, leaving that to Santa.

Grate Swiss cheese and cut up ham. The ham has a story.

The ham was not procured from the grocery store, but resulted from a barter between our doctor friend and a patient. He often barters services for meat and such. The doctor and his wife couldn't see consuming an entire hog, however, and offered to sell us half. We accepted. The hog was butchered and smoked locally. We baked the ham when my sister and her husband visited a few days ago. As a result, we sent them along with ham sandwiches, enjoyed together a delicious ham and scalloped potato dinner, ham and eggs for breakfast, a huge batch of ham and bean soup (several meals in the freezer) plus our dinner salad. And more.

Assemble veggies and top with ham and cheese and dressing of choice. I use our go-to dressings:

Laurie's sesame dressing and chipotle sauce, mixed.

Laurie's dressing is here.http://ordinarylife-mk.blogspot.com/search?q=laurie%27s+dressing So good!

Thanks for checking out this post. Other low-carb entries— every post I ever wrote about diet and food—is probably contained in the link below.

However! Google Blogger does not seem to care about preserving photos, which annoys me. I am going to see about migrating to another blog host, perhaps WordPress. In the meantime, if you feel like looking back on a low-carb life, photos or not.....here you go.

Asian/Mexican Fusion Kale, Cabbage, and Carrot Chopped Salad

Lots of yummy low-carb wonders are on this plate starting on the left with baked butternut squash, cauliflower mashed "potatoes", raw sauerkraut with braised pork, AND, the object of our affection, occupying half the plate, kale, cabbage and carrot chopped salad with Mexican and Asian dressings.

Email subscribers: Please click on the headline to get to the website, where everything looks better.

Blending Asian and Mexican flavors may not seem like a good idea, and I wouldn't haven't done it if I'd not been so lazy. But PK and I were headed for a 4-night ski trip with 14 friends, sharing a house and cooking duties,  and we snagged cooking duty the first night and I thought a chopped winter salad would go well with Emeril Legasse's killer chili and the vegetarian option, squash bisque.

Lots of chop, chop, chopping, cut, cut, cutting in those soup recipes, plus the chopped salad, and I didn't feel like making dressing. I knew we'd have the ever-present chipotle sauce I use to pump up just about everything. But putting together an additional homemade dressing did not appeal.

At the local Farmer's Market I purchased a bottle of Asian ginger/sesame dressing. It was cheap, just past its expiration date, on the discontinued table. It was perfect. The salad was a hit.

Remove the tough ribs from the kale, process with the slicing blade
in a food processor, then finish the chopping by hand.

Cabbage roughly sliced by food processor, awaiting fine chopping.

Chopping and grating done! Except for the last-minute onion.

Multiple requests for the salad recipe surprised me! But, true to my people-pleasing gene, I looked for a sesame/ginger dressing recipe as a fill-in. I tried one. It sucked. So tonight I made the chopped salad again and reverted to my tried-and-true, already made sesame dressing plus the ubiquitous chipotle sauce, and voila! Perfect.

Please don't think of any of the recipes here as one-shot-wonders. Chopped salad keeps for a couple weeks in the refrigerator, and chipotle and sesame dressings have even more impressive refrigerator lives. Chop chop chop one night and take it easy for at least a week. You can buy grated cabbage/carrot salad in plastic but....not recommended. Try this instead.

Freshly chopped/grated kale, cabbage, carrots.

Same stuff mixed. Lasts a long time. 

Recipes follow.

Kale, Cabbage and Carrot Chopped Salad, Asian/Mexican Flavors

1 bunch kale, any variety. I used lacinato, chopped
1 small head cabbage or 2/3 head large, chopped
1 large carrot, grated
1/2 half medium sweet onion, chopped (for garnish)
Optional last-minute additions: chopped apple, cilantro, parsley, peppers

Directions:
Rinse the kale if necessary. I get mine at a local  organic farm stand and it usually doesn't require rinsing. If you need to rinse, dry the leaves or use a salad spinner. Remove the tough center stems. Fold the kale leaves and run them through a food processor using the slicing blade. Dump onto a cutting board and finish the chopping job.

Trim the cabbage and cut into wedges. Process with the slicing blade and finish chopping with a good knife on a cutting board.

Skin the carrot and process with the grating blade of a food processor. Or use a box grater.

At serving time, put mixed chopped veggies into a serving dish, add, or put on the table, optional ingredients. If you're serving a crowd, dress the salad using approximatlely equal amounts of sesame and chipotle dressings. If you're doing a small dinner, put the dressings on the side and let your lucky loved ones pile on dressings and options as they please.

Laurie's Sesame Dressing and Marinade

My friend Laurie served this to me at least 20 years ago, and I had to have the recipe. I've made variations of this for at least two decades. It is definitely my salad dressing of choice and it is always on hand. Use a food processor.


Ingredients

6-8 cloves fresh garlic
1/2 cup olive oil
1/3 cup toasted sesame oil (or half olive oil, half avocado oil)
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar, rice vinegar, lemon juice, or other acidic liquid
1-2 Tbsp. dijon or other mustard
sweetener to taste— honey, sugar, Stevia
 dash of white pepper for a little kick


Directions: Use a food processor. Peel the garlic and process til finely minced. Add all other ingredients, then process until the oils are emulsified. The oil will separate after the dressing sits for awhile, but it is easily  mixed with a twirl of the spoon. Works great for dressing a salad or marinating veggies for the grill or even steak or chicken.

Chipotle Sauce

2/3 c mayo 
2/3 c sour cream 
2/3 c plain yogurt 
2-4  tsp. lemon or lime juice.
2-3 tsp serrano sauce or garlic/chili sauce. Lacking those, use a Sirrachea sauce.
1-2 tsp. cumin Mix and serve over, or on the side, with grilled meats, fish, veggies, eggs, or atop soups or stews.

2-3 cubes frozen chipotle cubes - or 2-3 canned chipotles in adobo sauce, minced. 


Taste, taste, taste. Gauge your own heat tolerance. As you can see, this recipe is based on thirds, using the same amount of mayo, sour cream, and yogurt. 

More Kale Recipes from Ordinary Life

Kale chips!
Creamed kale with dried tomatoes
Kale and Yoga Eggs Fritatta
Killer Kale Salad with Sesame Dressing
Savory Eggs, Kale, Prosciuitto Breakfast
Kick Butt Kale Soup
Key to a Happy Marriage (includes kale!)
Spring Smoothie
Quinoa Kale Salad