Last week Princess Know it All was featured on Big Blend’s Radio Show offering tips and tricks for students cooking in college, click here to listen to the radio interview!

Brown Rice
Always soak your brown rice the night before with a small piece of Kombu seaweed.
Why eat brown rice instead of white? Well for starters, brown rice has 3 ½ grams of fiber while white rice has less than one! Brown rice also contains nutrients like magnesium, manganese and zinc. White rice has reduced levels of these nutrients, but is often fortified with iron and some B vitamins. Bringing B’s into our bodies aids our nervous system and can help relieve mental depression; filling our plates with food in its natural state is a sure way to regain our healthy selves!
I love brown rice and now that I’ve gotten hooked on the full flavor plain old white rice tastes void of substance.
I make brown rice at least once a week. I always make enough of it to last a few days and use it to thicken sauces. This staple makes mealtime cake- I always have a strong base to build with!

Pot-Boiled Brown Rice:
Whatcha’ Need:
1 c. brown rice (short or long grain or brown basmati)
2 c. boiling water
1 pinch of sea salt
For larger batches, use less water: 3 c. rice with 5 ½ c. water

1. Wash the rice by swirling it in a bowl of cool water. Drain in a large, fine-mesh strainer. Pat with a paper towel to remove excess water. Then place the rice in a pot with a snug-fitting lid.
2. Add water & salt, and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer – without stirring or lifting the lid – for 50-60 minutes. Relax… dinner is cooking itself.

Pressure-cooked Brown Rice:
Whatcha’ Need:
2 c. short grain brown rice
3 – 3 ½ c. water
1/8 tsp. sea salt

1. Wash the rice and drain in a strainer (as in recipe above).
2. Place in pressure cooker with water and salt, and start on medium-low heat for 20 minutes. Then, turn the heat up to high briefly until pressure valve jiggles. Put a flame spreader under the pot, to keep from burning rice on the bottom.
3. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 40 minutes (1 hour total).

Rice-Cooker Brown Rice:
This rice cooker has saved my life – when I don’t have enough time to stand over the stove, I sho’ do love this little machine. When making brown rice, be sure to add enough water. If you didn’t and the rice isn’t soft enough, just add more water and re – run the cycle. I also add sesame or olive oil and a pinch of salt before starting the rice cooker.
Since brown rice requires the most water, place a kitchen towel on top of the lid when making a full pot, so that the steam doesn’t spray everywhere.

Notes: If you are in the midst of digestive distress be sure to cook your rice to almost a porridge – the softer it is, the easier it is to digest. The first 3 months of my digestive distress, I ate my almost all of my grains this way.
What to do with leftover brown rice? Well, if your next question is “What can I take to a potluck that will satisfy me if there is NOTHING else healthy?” Here you go!

Skillet Fish with Ghee

This recipe is fast, quick and healthy! Ghee is clarified butter that is so old-school and ancestral that it has to come back to our tables. In fact, most African and Indian households feed their families meals made with Ghee. It has a strong butter flavor and its health benefits through the roof! It’s known to aid the healing of digestive ulcerations, balance the brain and add a glow to one’s skin. I’m all about Ghee! Plus, it cooks at a high heat with a slower rate of burning. Ghee also has a spiritual component – it has been a part of religious ceremonies for centuries!

Whatcha’ Need:
2 tbsp. Ghee
4 cloves of garlic
Salt & Pepper
Lemon
2 c. Sake
2 tbsp. sweet white miso – dilute this miso in a separate cup of super hot water to make a broth, this way you can work out the clumps.

Do the same deal with the fish, rinsing and soaking in salt water. While this is going on, chop up your garlic and slice your lemon. Heat the cast iron skillet and add the Ghee!
Again, I love my food processor. Add garlic, lemon, diluted miso, sake, salt & pepper. Plop the fish into the hot skillet, pour this slammin’ sauce on top, cover and cook on medium low for about 12 – 15 minutes.
Serve this dish over brown rice with a side of Bok Choy!

Gotta Get ‘Em – Green Beans!

I had NO clue why green beans were so good fo’ us; I’d been told as a kid that they were good for me and I HAD to eat them. Now I tell my kids what’s so great about green beans: Vitamin K, Vitamin A and Vitamin C. Be careful not to overcook ‘em ‘cause it will deplete the Vitamin C. Green beans are also a fabulous source of fiber, potassium, iron, and foliate. If that’s not enough, they’re also a good source of calcium, protein, magnesium, riboflavin, thiamin and cooper!
I buy green beans Organic and frozen if I can’t find them fresh.

Whatcha’ Need:
1 – 2 tbsp. sesame oil
1 – 2 cloves crushed garlic
1 tsp. salt

If using fresh, WASH ‘em off. Heat up your cast iron skillet. Add sesame oil, crushed garlic and salt into the grill. Throw in your green beans and sauté.

A meal that heals for Cinco de Mayo

Black Beans

Whatcha’ Need:
I cup of soaked black beans  w/ a small piece of Kombu seaweed (adds trace minerals & breaks the gas down)
1/2 onion chopped in 2 pieces (any onion will do, red, yellow, sweet etc.)
1 teaspoon of baking soda
2- 3 cloves of garlic chopped in half
1 tbsp  dried or fresh basil
1 tbsp  tumeric
1 tbsp Tamari or Shoyu soy sauce

Preparation:

1. Rinse beans well and drain soaking water.  Place the beans in a large pot and cover 2 inches with water. Have a small bowl next to your pot and a large kitchen spoon – bring beans to boil.  You will see a big old pile of foam on top – scoop it off! This is the gas, keep removing it until it stops forming.
2. Lower your heat and add everything but the salt and Tamari/Shoy sauce.  Cook on low until soft, occasionally removing foam if it should reappear.
3. I cook these guys for about 1.5 hours on low, you don’t have to stand next to them just cover to keep the water in and add more if you’ve removed a bunch while getting at the foam.  The last 20 minutes add your salt and Tamari / Shoyu.
4. *Drink the broth and add sweet white miso making a yummy soup – this is major iron medicine! Helps folks with anemia. Use a slotted spoon to serve beans.

Pico de Gallo Salsa – My way!

Whatcha’ Need:
1 lime squeezed for it’s juice
1/2 cup of chopped fresh cilantro
2 or 3 green onions chopped small
1/4 of a red onion chopped small
4 Roma tomatoes chopped small
*Chilies are optional for spice

Guacamole Simple Style!

Whatcha’ Need:
1 garlic clove crushed
1 lime squeezed for juice
3 Avocados
1sp of salt

Brown Rice

Whatcha’ Need:
1 cup of brown rice – preferably soaked over night w/ small piece of Kombu seaweed – soaking it make it more digestible – the more easily food is digested the more we absorb nutritionally
3 cups of water
1 tsp of salt

I use a rice maker, I add it all in except the salt until almost the end.  If you are using a stove style make it just like white rice bring to a boil, then lower the heat to low and cover for 30 minutes.

Zucchini, & Cabbage Stir fry – I like to serve this on the side or stuff it into a taco too!

Whatcha’ Need:
2 tbsp of olive oil
1 tsp of salt
1/2 onion
3 cloves of garlic
4 small zucchini of any sort you like
1/2 to a whole head of white cabbage – depends on how much you like it and how many you are feeding

Preparation:

1. Heat cast iron skillet, add oil.
2. Toss in onions cut in half moons. Chop garlic and toss it in.
3. Slice the cabbage in long pieces and add to onion and garlic, let it cook covered with about 4 tbsp of water if need be.  Cook until it’s just softening and then add in medium sliced circles of zucchini. The zucchini cooks quickly so once it’s soft remove!

Now make yourself some tacos!

Our dear family friend Lama Tenzin came to town, house guest #38.  With him a lesson in the kitchen fo’Mee.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkcJShrtUiQ

In Tibet and India it is concidered a blessing to eat the foods of the monks.  Sick folks travel to the monasteries to eat a meal prepared by the monks – believeing that a blessing or healing will occur.  Lama Tenzin is a wonderful cook and he runs an orphange, 21 girls all rescued from Upper Dolpo – he makes the walk taking 28 days round trip to the highest city in the world.  There he face Mao rebels and freezing cold climates.  There are almost no veggies up there and only the rich have rice to eat.

Here’s what he made for us!

Basmati Rice

• 2 cups of rinsed Basmati rice
• Add 4 cups of water place in rice maker or stove top pot.
• Add a pinch of salt towards the end.

Steam Veggies:

• Wash all of the veggies first!
• Place Asparagus and any type of mushrooms in steamer
• Steam until slightly soft, but not for too long
• Steam red pepper, carrots, snap peas, brocolli, yellow squash, zuchinni -  break into two groups.

Red potatoes -

• Remove eyes and dark spots
• Steam red potatoes until soft
• Once potatoes are done and cover in blend of crushed garlic and green curry paste – Lama Tenzin mixed these two items together to create a paste, the green curry was not spicy and can be found in the Asian food section or any International Market. The Lama used about 2 tablespoons of paste for the potatoes. The rest was saved for the veggies.

Then Lama Tenzin rinsed and steamed two blocks of Organic firm tofu. Once steamed for 10 minutes, he chopped the tofu into small little pieces.  He heated safflower oil – about 2 cups – in a wok then placed the tofu into the oil, making crispy tofu!

Once the tofu was done, the Lama opened two cans of garbonzo beans. Look for Eden’s Organic Garbanzo beans –  this company is organic and soaks their beans with Kombu seaweed. Be sure to rinse and wash them well. He heated the beans in a skillet and then mixed the Tofu into the beans.

Once the veggies are steamed he poured out the majority of the oil and then added a chopped half moon size of red onions and two chopped tomoatoes to a bit of the leftover oil. Once they were cooked down he added the remainding garlic curry paste and then tossed in the steamed veggies.
Meanwhile the potatoes that were covered in rub were placed in the oven and baked for about 20 minutes!

We sat down to a fabulous meal – Lama style!

THANKFUL FOR A MEAL THAT HEALS ON THANKSGIVING DAY

Ancestral Thanksgiving day meals were always full of healing ingredients, greens that aided in cleaning the blood, sweet potatoes were not meant to be covered in marshmallow.  Here is exactly what we will be eating in my house this Thanksgiving – give one of these recipes a try and KNOW that you adding something to your families table that heals.

If you’d like to listen to a radio interview with me discussing this recipe click here and give it a go!  http://southwestblend.com/Ultimate-Living/MMcCormick11-12-2010.mp3

Happy Thanksgiving y’all!

Apple Kuzu Drink
Collards
Ginger Garlic Lamb
Sweet Potato Soufflé
Ginger Butternut Soup
Apple Kuzu Soothy Pie

Apple Kuzu Drink
A hot cocoa replacement, my girls LOVE this drink and so do I! The combination of apples and kuzu calms the nervous system and the intestines. Known to calm hyperactive children, this is a must for all mamas and papas! This apple kuzu drink is also known to fight fevers in little people as well as adults. If my girls start to come down with something, I serve this little drink up!

Whatcha’ Need:
1 c. organic unstrained apple juice
1 tbsp. diluted Kuzu in cold water

Preparation:
Bring apple juice just about to a boil then pour in diluted Kuzu – stirring constantly to avoid lumps.  Serve in tiny little coffee or teacups – careful because it’s HOT!

Collards
Seriously old school Ancestral!

Once again I’ve got rules fo’ my GREENS:

1. Cook a HUGE bunch since they cook down big time and then you’ll have leftovers for the next day!
2. Wash ‘em well.
3. Chop ‘em up, stems and all.
4. Heat a big pan, add 2 tbsp. of olive oil, 1 tsp. of salt and chopped up garlic – I like a LOT of garlic so I hook ‘em up! Four cloves at least.
5. Add in your greens and salt towards the end.
6. Add a few Tbsp. of water to steam down the greens, then add more greens as the first bunch cooks down.

If you are suffering from digestive distress, cook your greens way down!  If you do not have digestive stress cook ‘em down any old way ‘cause greens are the one veggie that delivers more nutrition the longer they are cooked!

What to do with left over greens? Throw them into tomato sauce or tomato free sauce or add them to miso soup!

Ginger Garlic Lamb
Until it was recommended to eat this lovely little creature, I had never tried it before. Now I know that it is actually easy to digest! As long as it is prepared well and not greasy, my body does well!  Plus, the sweet potatoes mixed with this ginger garlic lamb are banging!

Whatcha’ Need:
1 leg of lamb
5 cloves of garlic
1 tsp of black pepper
1 onion sliced in half moons
1 celery stalk cut into large pieces
4 carrots cut into large long pieces
4 washed and unpeeled sweet potatoes
1 Tbsp. crushed ginger
1 Tbsp. turmeric
2 Tbsp. Tamari or Shoyu soy sauce
2 Tbsp. Mirin
¼ c. water

Preparation:
1. Toss all of your spices and flavorings (soy sauce and mirin) into the mini food processer – blend it into a paste-like rub, and cover the leg of lamb, rubbing it all over.
2. Pour the water into the bottom of the roasting pan, place the leg of lamb in the water, surround the lamb with all the veggies and cover.
3. Roast in the oven at 325 degrees for 6 hours, adding more water if needed.

Sweet Potato Soufflé
I love pumpkin pie but last fall I wasn’t able to digest wheat and lately I’ve been careful of the amount sugar and wheat I put into my kids bodies. Instead, I came up with this recipe. It’s the perfect way to get my girls down with the sweet potato!

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Whatcha’ Need:
4 medium sweet potatoes
¼ c. coconut milk
¼ c. shredded UN sweetened coconut
2 eggs
1 tbsp. brown rice syrup

Preparation:
Scrub sweet potatoes and slice each one into 3 large pieces. Leaving the skin on them, place in a steamer on the stove.  It usually takes about 15 minutes until they are totally soft.  Check by poking with a fork. While the sweet potatoes are steaming, whip up the eggs in a large mixing bowl and add in your coconut milk. Peel your sweet potatoes using your fingers, this is easy peasy!

Lola likes to add the sweet potatoes and mash them in with the other ingredients.  I love my “wand” mixer with its easy handle for her little hands!

Once every thing is mixed, rub a small glass casserole dish with coconut oil before adding the soufflé! Lastly we cover the top with more shredded coconut and bake for 20 minutes!

Everyone loves this! We serve it as a dessert or along side a white fish dipped in cornmeal & cooked in coconut oil with a side of garlic collard greens!

Ginger Butternut Squash Soup
My only memory of butternut squash wasn’t such a good one.  I was invited to a neighbor’s house for dinner when I was 5 years old and the lady of the house served hamburgers without a bun and a scoop of cottage cheese along with a side of blended up butternut squash.  Later that night, I threw up. To this day I am not sure if it was the bland food or the cold family dynamic of that household but I avoided Butternut Squash for the rest of my life – until this past year.  It’s funny how a food memory gets embedded in your brain. I had to find a way to create a new relationship with my squash!  In Los Angeles, one of my favorite coffee shops and teahouse served an amazing carrot soup. I had an idea of the ingredients and made this bangin’ soup happen! Now I’m so psyched to share it with you all – I PROMISE you’re gonna LOVE it. The flavors are perfectly complimentary: sweet and mild heat mixed with yum! Roots and squashes take 15 – 25 minutes depending on how thickly you slice them.

Whatcha’ Need:
1 Butternut squash peeled and cut into medium sized pieces
3 medium carrots – cut into medium pieces the smaller the faster they cook.
1 medium apple peeled and cored
1 small onion cut into medium half moon slices
1 small piece of ginger – chopped or more depending how much heat you like!
1 tsp. of grated tumeric – I use fresh but you can use powdered if that’s all that is available to you.
3 cloves of garlic chopped large
1 tbsp. Tamari/Shoyu
1 large tbsp. of sweet white miso
5 c. water
1 c. left over brown rice

Method:
Put everything except the miso into the pot. Cover with lid.

Cook on medium low for about 20 minutes, long enough for everything to cook down.  If it looks dry, add more water. I usually pull out some of the liquid broth to dilute my miso. Make sure to turn the heat down before adding the diluted miso. After everything is blended, whip out your electric wand and blend this baby – if you don’t have a wand use your blender.

Apple Soothy Kuzu Pie
This is so yummy I can’t believe it’s so good for me – the combination of apples and kuzu are a natural calmer! I like making this pie in the wintertime, it’s a great cold weather treat and easy to serve up for guests!

Whatcha’ Need:
4 apples
¼ c. raisins
½ tsp. minced lemon peel
1 c. water and apple juice (vary mixture to your taste)
1 heaping T. Kuzu
2 c. water or juice
1 tbsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. ground flax seeds
1 tsp. Ghee

Method
Peel, core and slice the apples. Place in a saucepan with raisins, cinnamon or lemon peel, and water and Ghee. Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer for 10-15 minutes, until apples are tender. Dissolve Kuzu in cold water, add and stir until thick. For a cobbler taste and crunch I top with my ground flax!

Pink Salmon, Purple Sweet Potatoes and Green Broccoli

Whatcha’ Need:

1 large or medium sized wild Alaskan caught Salmon boneless fillet

4 cloves of garlic

1 small piece of ginger

A half of chopped red or yellow onion

1 tablespoon Mirin (rice wine)

1 tablespoon Shoyu or Tamari soy sauce

1 tablespoon sesame oil

2-3 large sweet purple potatoes, if you can’t find purple, then use regular sweet potatoes

1/2 can of organic coconut milk

Agave or Brown Rice Syrup (optional)

1 large bunch of organic broccoli

Preparation:

1. Make your marinate. What I DIDN’T KNOW when I made this video is to plop all of my ingredients into a food processor so that means the garlic, onions, ginger, Mirin, Tamari and a bit of sesame oil. I blend it up and then pour it over the fish, soaking the salmon is a sauce! Add a bit of water or more Mirin and Soy if your doing it this way. I then place the Marinated Salmon in the fridge and when I return home in the afternoon I either put the entire glass dish into a hot oven 350 degrees and cook it until it’s 160 in temp. (use a meat thermometer). If you choose to cook your Salmon in a skillet like me, it takes about 10 minutes. Be sure to add your broccoli to the skillet the last 5 minutes of cooking!
2. The Purple Sweet Potatoes are cake, wash them off really good by using a veggie scrub brush and then add them to a full pot of water, let them cook until they are soft all the way through. Once you’ve peeled the skin add them to a bowl with your coconut milk and sweetener, bust your mixing wand and mash away! Kids love these because of the color!!

Salmon: Wild Caught Salmon is the best, as opposed to farm raised, here I used a medium sized fillet. This amount usually feeds my family of 4 easily, remember we want our plates to be full of veggies and our fish or meat fills only a quarter of the space on our plates.