A New Way of Cooking at Things

I have started eating in a whole new way, with whole foods. My Naturopath suggested cutting out dairy and wheat so I am trying it. Mostly it seems like a good thing and to entertain myself while I am learning, I thought it would be good to start posting my adventures in new recipes. Mostly I will be using recipes from The Whole Life Nutrition Cookbook by Alissa Segersten and Tom Malterre, both graduates of Bastyr University. My Naturopath graduated from Bastyr so it seems like a good path to follow. BTW - I highly recommend the cookbook - tons of good info along with great recipes.

Well, this is Easter dinner for us. We enjoyed it out on the screen porch in lovely weather in the mid-70s. Unfortunately we were rudely interrupted by a fairly good sized snapping turtle who decided it was a fine time to jump in our pond. Of course, that caused a lot of barking and jumping from our dog kids. Richard shut down the ruckus by throwing leaf basket over the turtle. Later he drove it down to the old mill pond, a couple of miles away. Hopefully it will think that is a better spot.

But I digress, Easter Dinner. It consisted of "Basil Balsamic Wild Salmon with Tomato Topping," boiled sweet potatoes with soy butter and a nice salad with lemon vinaigrette. All in all, excellent so feeling very encouraged about this sort of cooking.

I prefer wild caught salmon to farmed which has some difficult health issues. Wild caught fish is healthier in general. The marinade was made from juice of one fresh lemon, 1/4 cup of olive or sesame oil, 1/4 cup of wheat-free tamari, a handful of fresh basil leaves chopped fine, lots of chopped garlic and a bit of lemon zest.

The topping consists of chopped tasty tomatoes, pitted kalamata olives, a bit of olive or sesame oil and more of that fresh chopped basil.

Also made a nice little salad of mixed greens from my CSA, red bell pepper, green onions, toasted pumpkin seeds (all organic) with this lemon vinaigrette salad dressing. The dressing was make of equal parts olive oil and fresh squeezed lemon juice, 1 T. Bragg's Apple Cider Vinegar (if you have never used this vinegar you are really missing something good!), some lemon zest, chopped garlic, sea salt, and just a touch of ground cumin and cardamon.

For dessert we had coconut milk ice cream, what a treat!