Brown & Wild Rice Salad, Green Goddess Dressing and Cake
I go and skip one night and look at the backlog of edibles to tell you about.
It has been a birthday party sort of weekend. Not the stylish dinners out as in days of yore, but small child birthdays – a different kind of fun, and a completely different kind of menu.
I have to say – I am starting to love having an actual appetite (it makes food taste so much better – thus of course the reason the French wish us a bon appetit) but it does not help my cause to be in the proximity of so much cake. Particularly pickable cake scraps – the moist chocolate trimmings from Ben’s volcano cake in particular. (My sister has always allowed her kids to choose any kind of birthday cake, and she has always made them herself, entirely from scratch. And she is not a professional Cakeworks sort of person either. She may try to gently steer them toward, say, a soccer ball cake, but inevitably gets stuck the night before creating Tyrannosaurus Rexes and active volcanoes complete with palm tree landscaping and a pink magma core, spewing string licorice.)
Me: “How does one make a volcano cake?”
A: “Bake three 9″x13″ cakes. Set outside in -23 weather. Stack cakes, sandwiched with magma (icing). Carve away everything that isn’t the volcano.”
Everything that wasn’t the volcano – that was what was out on a rimmed cookie sheet for me to pick at before dinner. Honestly, nothing is better with a Tim Horton’s coffee than dense chocolate cake. Especially when you are at the point where your stomach is grateful for anything it can get.
The monkey cake was a winner too. I can’t take credit for anything but the innards – J and P finished it up, with absolute non-confidence that they would be able to pull it off, and look at it! How cute is that? They made the banana all on their own, with mashed bananas and quinoa flour, for the kids.
Backtracking to my sister, we have both lost 14 pounds in the same length of time. Huh. She is a few inches shorter than me and has more weight to lose (I’m not sure if she’d be comfortable with me divulging the number, so I won’t) but we both entered into it with the same mindset. As she put it: I’ve never been so lax and so not hardcore about it before. And I really think I can do it this time!
One thing I’ve learned the hard way: when it comes to losing weight it’s not all or nothing – to drastically cut calories, eliminate foods (or entire food groups) from your diet and start a rigid exercise program all at once can push anyone into the comforting arms of Ben & Jerry. Slow and steady wins the race, right?
So dinner tonight was do-it-yourself pita pizzas with mushrooms, red peppers and thin shavings of pepperoni, veg with Green Goddess Dip that looked like Shrek’s swamp but had the same sort of tangy, salty appeal as Caesar dressing (probably due to the small squirt of anchovy paste that’s totally optional but good for you) with the very fresh green flavour of Italian parsley.
Green Goddess Dip
This classic dip is made green by pureed parsley, onions and chives – add more or less to suit your taste. The anchovies are optional, but add a flavour reminiscent of Caesar dressing.
1/4 cup white wine or white balsamic vinegar
1/2-1 cup chopped fresh parsley (stems removed)
3 green onions, chopped
small bunch of fresh chives, chopped
1 tsp. – 1 Tbsp. anchovy paste (optional)
1-2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 Tbsp. lemon juice (or to taste)
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 cup low fat mayonnaisePuree everything in the blender until smooth and refrigerate until ready to serve. Makes about 2 cups.
Per tablespoon: 23 calories, 1.9 g total fat (0.1 g saturated fat, 1.1 g monounsaturated fat, 0.5 g polyunsaturated fat), 0.1 g protein, 1.7 g carbohydrate, 0 mg cholesterol, 0.1 g fiber. 70% calories from fat
Green Goddess Guacamole: add a mashed ripe avocado; stir it in after pureeing.
Oh right – the grainy salad. That was actually yesterday’s lunch. But I had to tell you about it – it’s so much better than the sum of its parts – I actually pawned the rest off on my folks, a tactic generally reserved for freshly baked cookies and chocolate cake. Although this salad is very nutrient-dense and good for you, it isn’t exactly low in calories. And I was shoveling it in, thinking about how great it would be if I worked in an office and could bring this in for lunch. Although we all know it would be gone by 10:30.
Brown & Wild Rice Salad
Try adding any sort of chopped dried fruit or toasted nuts to this basic grainy salad – or additions like finely chopped peppers, halved grape tomatoes, chick peas or shelled edamame (soybeans). Whatever you put in it, it’s fantastic with a slab of salmon.
3/4 cup (about) wild rice
3/4 cup (about) brown rice
1/2 cup sliced or slivered almonds or chopped pecans, toasted
1-2 green onions, chopped
1/3 cup dried cranberries
1/3 cup raisins or chopped dried apricots
almost a whole bunch of fresh curly or flat-leaf parsley, choppedDressing:
2 Tbsp. canola or olive oil
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 Tbsp. soy sauce
1-2 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp. brown sugar
1-2 tsp sesame oil
1 garlic clove, finely crushedCook both rices in a lot of boiling water for about 45 minutes; just until the rice is tender. Drain it well in a colander, running cold water over it to stop it from cooking. Once the rice has cooled, stir in the nuts, green onions, dried fruit and parsley.
To make the dressing, shake all the ingredients up in a jar. Pour over the salad and toss to coat.
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January 25 2009 10:52 pm | leftovers
Rebecca on 26 Jan 2009 at 5:25 am #
My lunch is almost always gone by 10am and this was even before I got pregnant
Erica B. on 26 Jan 2009 at 6:44 am #
The monkey cake is sooo cute! Are those whoppers or chocolate pearls for eyes??
I had the same sort of dessert filled weekend too except instead of kid’s birthday cakes it was cannoli & assorted pastries from Lina’s and tarts from A Ladybug Bakery. There should have been a big flashing neon *Danger!* sign…we did show some restraint though; the tarts are still in the fridge(both a good and a bad thing at this point).
JulieVR on 26 Jan 2009 at 7:19 am #
Oooh, Whoppers would have been a good idea! I think they were shiny black gumballs.
robyn on 26 Jan 2009 at 9:22 am #
I love how the Green Goddess dip is bubbling like an ogre swamp!!!
elektra on 26 Jan 2009 at 9:35 am #
of course you’ll make it, julie! you have stamina and aren’t afraid of hard work.
it’s funny about the psychology of losing weight. at different times, i’ve held onto certain thoughts (obsessively repeating them) when faced with cake. or pie. god, that apple pie is haunting me. anyway.
my present psychological trick is something that really resonates: what makes me think i deserve excessive amounts of food? an entire family of four in SE Asia could eat well on the food i consume some days.
Manon from Ontario on 26 Jan 2009 at 12:03 pm #
Love the monkey, sooo cute
I find it so cool to be chatting with someone from across the country, isn’t your blog amazing!
Sunday I took a 40 min walk in our woods, walking in snow up to my ankles, with my dog, what a great workout. I plan to make it out again later on today, cross country skiing maybe.
MFO
Katharine on 26 Jan 2009 at 12:19 pm #
What an awesome cake! Great teamwork guys! We missed you, but looks like you had a great time too! Will fer sher be trying the dressing. Looks goulish!
piccola on 26 Jan 2009 at 5:11 pm #
For the vegetarians — like me — who don’t want to put anchovies in the dressing, a small amount of miso paste adds the same kind of salty, briny flavour.
Julie, I’m so jealous that you’ve lost 14 lbs in so little time. I put on 5 lbs last summer when I broke my collarbone and was banned from exercise for a few months. I haven’t been able to budge them, despite going back to six days of training per week. Food diaries haven’t helped either. Sigh.
thepinkpeppercorn on 26 Jan 2009 at 5:22 pm #
mmm – salad with rice in it! One of my favourite lunches
Cute cake!
JulieVR on 26 Jan 2009 at 5:31 pm #
It seems like a lot – 8 of those pounds were the first week (and the Norwalk virus jump-started it I’m sure!) – it’s always more dramatic at first and then settles down (or should – 14 pounds per month would be a bit fast). What sort of training do you do?
LisaMer on 26 Jan 2009 at 8:13 pm #
Love, love, love the monkey cake!! N loves Curious George and I think this would be a hit at her 3rd birthday (sort of coming up…in May!). I’ve seen that Green Goddess dip somewhere in one of my cookbooks….baby brain won’t let me recall it. =P Looks yummy!
Wine Blog on 27 Jan 2009 at 12:17 am #
Hey foodie! Thanks for the really neat monkey cake idea. My two little boys are gonna love it! Hey I have a foodie blogroll on my wine blog I would love to add you too. Let me know if you want to do a swap!
Manon from Ontario on 27 Jan 2009 at 5:07 am #
Julie, a couple a days ago you posted the pad thai recipe and I wanted to make it but kinda forgot about it but I had purchased the beans sprout, this was a couple of days ago so for dinner last night I had to use them, and I needed to make lots of veggies cause I was hungry, so I stir fried in e.v.o.o. one chopped ognion, half grean and orange pepper, 1 cup each of cut up brocolie and cauliflower, 10 mushrooms, 1 carrot sliced thinly and a pack of bean sprouts and added some soya sauce……well it was delicious, a party in the mouth and a hit with the family. And this was a side dish of the main course.
Thanks I’m buying more this week
MFO
Cathy D on 27 Jan 2009 at 12:16 pm #
Shrek’s swap? You kill me.
Looks great!!! Cathy
piccola on 29 Jan 2009 at 6:33 pm #
Eh, mostly distance running. But I added weights and yoga as my New Year’s resolution. Hasn’t done much so far, although I do feel a lot better for it.
Natalie (Michigan) on 01 Feb 2009 at 12:58 pm #
Made this salad – SO GOOD! Husband loved it. At first I tried it as a side dish (to chicken/cheese crepes). It didn’t really go with it. The salad really wanted to be center stage. So rather than fight it I added chicken to the leftovers — wonderful!